Court advises Khalid Samad, FMT to settle defamation suit amicably

 

The Kuala Lumpur High Court today advised for the defamation suit filed by former federal territories minister Khalid Abdul Samad against online news portal, Free Malaysia Today (FMT) and its former editor-in-chief, be settled amicably.

The suit was over an allegedly defamatory article involving the tussle for the prime minister post between Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim.

Lawyer Mohamed Ashmeer Mohamed Ashrof, representing Khalid (above), told reporters that the court urged both parties to discuss and find a solution to the case.

"If no solution is reached, the court has set two days from July 1 next year for the hearing," he said after the matter was brought up in the chambers of Judge Rohani Ismail, adding that the court had also fixed Dec 10 for case management.

On June 23, the Amanah strategic communications director Khalid, who is the plaintiff, filed the suit naming Abdar Rahman Koya and FMT Media Sdn Bhd as the first and second defendants.

In his statement of claim, Khalid who is also Shah Alam MP claimed that on Feb 26, both defendants had published an article entitled "Khalid presses on, tells Dr M to make way for Anwar" on the news portal after referring to the plaintiff's Twitter post on the same day.

Khalid claimed that the defendants had translated his Twitter post in English using their own words, without obtaining any confirmation from him.

Khalid further claimed that the article, among others, meant that the plaintiff had demanded Dr Mahathir’s resignation from his post as prime minister or interim prime minister and was rude and disrespectful towards an experienced and high-ranking political figure.

He also alleged that although the defendants had published a statement apologising to the plaintiff, it was not made public and the first defendant (Abdar) had mocked the plaintiff and insisted that the Twitter post was apt.

As such, the plaintiff is seeking general, compensatory, aggravated and exemplary damages, costs, and an injunction to stop the defendants from publishing the article further, in addition to an order requesting both defendants to issue a statement of apology in the terms agreed by the plaintiff.

- Bernama