Two logging subsidiaries of Samling Group Sdn Bhd have filed a RM5 million defamation suit against Save Rivers over seven articles carried by the environmental group’s website.
Samling Plywood (Miri) Sdn Bhd and Samling Plywood (Baramas) Sdn Bhd filed the writ of summons at the Miri High Court in June.
The suit named Save Rivers Sdn Bhd; the group’s chairperson Peter Kallang; and activists Mark Bujang, Thomas Jalong Apoi, and Caroline Mbang Nyurang, as the five defendants.
According to a copy of the suit’s statement of claim sighted by Malaysiakini, the two timber firms are suing over the articles uploaded on the portal saverivers.org between June 23 last year and March 10 this year.
The two plaintiffs, who contended they were issued valid forest timber licences by the Sarawak state government, claimed among others that the allegations in the articles are baseless and unwarranted.
When contacted by Malaysiakini today, the NGO’s counsel Simon Siah confirmed that the two timber firms have filed the civil action over the seven online articles.
The lawyer said that they will be filing their statement of defence against the lawsuit.
He added that the matter has been fixed for further case management before the Miri High Court on Sept 6.
Malaysiakini is awaiting a response from Samling Group over the civil action.
In a media statement issued earlier this morning, Bruno Manser Fund and several other international and local NGOs have called for Samling Group to drop the defamation suit against Save Rivers.
The groups contended that the legal action amounted to a strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP) which seemed to be designed to suppress local advocacy and permit Samling to continue its logging operations.
The coalition vowed to stand with Save Rivers in completely rejecting the defamation suit.
They claimed that through the #StopTheChop campaign, communities of the Baram and Limbang rivers have been campaigning for more transparency and adequate consultations regarding logging concessions certified under the Malaysian Timber Certification Scheme (MTCS) for over a year.
They contended that the communities have alleged that they have not had adequate access to the social and environmental impact assessments on which logging concessions are based, and several communities also allege that they were not consulted about the concessions prior to their approval.
The coalition claimed that the community groups have submitted official complaints to the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) dispute resolution committee, which has opened a case to try to resolve the conflicts between Samling Group and Indigenous communities.
“Samling filed its suit while this mediation process was already underway, demonstrating a lack of good faith and undermining this non-adversarial avenue to resolving the conflict.
“Furthermore, this suit was filed after the MTCC initiated a stakeholder discussion between all involved parties. Samling has undermined the process by filing suit, resulting in MTCC withdrawing its invitation to hold any discussion pending resolution of the suit,” the environmental coalition claimed. - Mkini
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