Sarawak Report founder crowdfunds after legal battle with royalty

Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle-Brown has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £75,000 (RM446,964) to pay damages and legal fees.

At the time of writing, the campaign on gofundme.com has raised 14.4 percent of the target.

Rewcastle-Brown (above), book publisher Chong Ton Sin and printing company Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd were ordered to pay RM300,000 in damages and RM120,000 in legal costs to Terengganu Sultanah Nur Zahirah.

Nur Zahirah had sued for defamation over Rewcastle-Brown's 2018 book titled "The Sarawak Report: The Inside Story of the 1MDB Exposé".

The plaintiff had contended that Rewcastle-Brown had implied that the former played a role in helping Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) secure a position in the Terengganu Investment Authority, the precursor to 1MDB.

In October 2022, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dismissed the suit on grounds that the contentious portions of the book were not defamatory although it contained factual errors.

Judicial Commissioner Mohd Haziq Pillay ruled that Rewcastle-Brown had mistaken Nur Zahirah for her sister-in-law Tengku Rahimah Puteri Sultan Mahmud. The court was also told that later editions of the book carried a correction.

But on Dec 12, the Court of Appeal overturned the decision and ruled in favour of Nur Zahirah. The judges ruled that the impugned statement had subjected the sultanah to public contempt and Rewcastle-Brown did not attempt to verify the statement.

Ruinous sum’

On her gofundme.com page, Rewcastle-Brown wrote that although the defendants are set to appeal to the Federal Court, they must pay Nur Zahirah beforehand.

"This may amount to a thousand times less than the astonishing RM100 million that the wealthy royal was demanding for a case of harmless mistaken identity, yet it is a ruinous sum for the three defendants targeted in this case.

"Unless we can, together with our wonderful supporters, raise the sums demanded, these two brave and hardworking small businesses in KL will face bankruptcy," wrote Rewcastle-Brown.

Chong is the owner of Gerak Budaya, a renowned Petaling Jaya-based publisher of books specialising in Malaysian politics, society and history. - Mkini