YTL Power sues The Vibes’ columnist for defamation

 

The columnist and the news portal have declined to retract the article as they felt the comments were fair and justified.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s first independent power producer (IPP), YTL Power International Bhd (YTL Power), has filed a defamation suit against the columnist of The Vibes, P Gunasegaram.

The suit was over an article published on the news portal on Dec 30, 2020, titled “Mukhriz’s crass hypocrisy ignores father’s role in rising corruption”.

The action, filed together with YTL Power’s subsidiary, YTL Power Generation Sdn Bhd (YTLPG), which signed the power purchase agreement with Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), took issue with one paragraph in the article.

The suit said the statements were intentionally defamatory/libellous and implied that the removal of Ani Arope as executive chairman of TNB then was to facilitate the signing of the power purchase agreement between YTLPG and TNB.

The suit also claimed the article had implied that the power purchase agreement was awarded to YTLPG by improper means and contained elements of impropriety.

It also said the statement “maliciously published, false and untrue statements to disparage the plaintiffs in the way of its reputation and/or goodwill and further expose the plaintiffs to public odium, ridicule and scandal, and the plaintiffs have suffered damage as a result of the same”.

YTL Power and YTLPG are also asking for an injunction to stop the statements from being repeated and for an apology to be published in The Vibes.

Gunasegaram’s lawyer, Rajan Navaratnam, said his client had previously offered the plaintiffs a right to reply and publish their side of the story in The Vibes but the offer was declined.

The Vibes managing editor Terence Fernandez said the news portal would support the columnist in the suit.

He said the writer informed them of the plaintiffs’ request for a retraction of the article and an apology, but they felt the comments were fair and justified. - FMT