Nizar vs Utusan - Appellate court tells daily to pay

Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia will still have to fork out RM250,000 to former Perak menteri besar Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin for defaming him in its report on a car licence plate number purchased by the Sultan of Johor.

This follows the unanimous decision of the Court of Appeal today in dismissing the appeal filed by Utusan.

The three-member panel headed by Justice Zaharah Ibrahim also ordered Utusan to pay Nizar RM20,000 in costs .

The other Court of Appeal judges sitting today were Justices Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim and Lim Yee Lan.

“The court recognises that the daily had wrongly reported a tweet by Nizar (right). The reporter and newspaper were not careful in publishing the news,” the appellate court ruled.

Despite today's decision,Utusan Malaysia can still file leave to appeal the matter before the Federal Court, the highest court in the land.

Nizar was represented by Fitri Asmuni while Utusan was represented by Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin.

Earlier this year, Kuala Lumpur High Court judge Rosnani Saub ordered Utusan to pay RM250,000 and RM30,000 as costs after finding the daily liable for defamation.

Justice Rosnani had in the ruling against Utusan Malaysia last July said the journalist was careless or did not consider the accuracy of his report.

"The reporter did not seem interested in finding out whether the report was true or otherwise. Hence, it can be concluded that what was written was with ill intent. Hence, the defence of justification and qualified privilege cannot be accepted here," she said.

Based on the balance of probabilities, the judge ruled, the court found there was 'express malice' or ill intent, since the reporter did not contact Nizar on what he had posted on Twitter.

She also noted that the reporter did not have any problem contacting the Johor Umno Youth chief on the matter, but not Nizar.

The former Perak menteri besar had filed separate suits againstUtusan Malaysia and TV3 regarding the WWW1 car licence plate issue. However, he lost the suit against TV3.