Court of Appeal upholds RM250,000 award for damages in Nizar vs Utusan libel suit

KUALA LUMPUR: The Court of Appeal here has upheld a High Court decision to award ex-Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin RM250,000 in damages, in his defamation suit against Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd over the WWW1 number plate bought by the Johor Sultan.

Justice Zaharah Ibrahim, who chaired a three-man panel, held Friday that the defence of justification, fair comment and qualified privilege did not apply for Utusan in the case.

Justice Zaharah said there was malice on the part of Utusan as evidence showed that Utusan reporter Mohd Ifqdar Abdul Rahman knew that the words were not true, and was reckless in his reporting.

"We find that the learned High Court judge was correct that the impugned words are defamatory to the respondent (Mohammad Nizar)," she said.

The two others in the panel were Court of Appeal judges Justice Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahim and Justice Lim Yee Lan.

"We agree with the High Court judge that the respondent (Mohammad Nizar) has prove his claim against the appellant (Utusan). We find that the damages awarded is reasonable taking into account the respondent's standing and circumstances of the case," she said.

Justice Zaharah dismissed the appeal by Utusan and awarded RM20,000 in costs to Mohammad Nizar.

In his submissions, Utusan lead counsel Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin argued that the award was exorbitant and that it was a fair comment on a matter of public interest.

However, Mohammad Nizar's lead counsel Mohd Fitri Asmuni, assisted by lawyer Mohammad Zamri Ibrahim, argued that Utusan had not practised responsible journalism by taking appropriate steps to verify the news before publishing it.

On July 10 last year, Mohammad Nizar filed a RM50mil suit against Utusan over a statement he made on his Twitter account on May 28 last year.

Mohammad Nizar said Utusan published a defamatory article on May 31 last year which implied he had tried to incite people to hate the Johor Sultan.

He said the statements also meant he had alleged the Johor Ruler had misused the people's funds to purchase the RM520,000 number plate.

On July 4 this year, the court ordered Utusan to pay RM250,000 to Nizar in damages and 5% interest to its full settlement.

On Oct 30 this year, the High Court granted an application by Utusan for a stay of damages.