On Feb 13 this year, deputy registrar Norfauzani Mohd Nordin had ordered PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, her former deputy Syed Husin Ali and the writer of two articles, Rusnizam Mahat, to pay RM70,000 in damages and another RM10,000 in costs.
Justice Su Geok Yiam, who allowed the appeal by the plaintiffs, said the award of RM70,000 by a deputy High Court registrar was “extraordinarily low” and ought to be increased.
“In my opinion, if the low sum is not substituted with an appropriate sum, the tort of libel will be trivialised,” she said.
Su said the Felda and Felda Global Ventures Holdings Sdn Bhd (FGV) were respectively a statutory body and a public listed company under the Companies Act.
“It will send a wrong message that the (defendants) could do that to other statutory bodies and get away with paying lower damages,” she said.
She said when the defendants used the term “Felda bankrupt”, it caused panic among shareholders and queries from banks.
She ordered the general and aggravated damages to be paid with interest until the judgment sum is settled.
Su also ordered the defendant to pay the plaintiffs another RM25,000 in costs.
On Aug 16, 2010, Felda and FGV filed a RM200 million defamation suit in respect of the news reports published by Suara Keadilan on June 22 and June 29, 2010.
The plaintiffs alleged that an article with the heading “Felda Bankrap” and another, “Bina Bangunan RM662 juta Hanya Libatkan Tiga Individu”, accompanied by a photograph captioned “Kontroversi”, had tarnished their image.
On Sept 30, 2014, Suara Keadilan’s former editor Dzulkarnain Taib, who was initially named as one of the defendants, tendered an apology to the plaintiffs.
On Oct 17, 2014, the High Court ruled in favour of Felda and the subsidiary.
Lawyers Mohd Hafarizam Harun and Nor Emelia Mohd Iszeham represented the plaintiffs, while Wan Azizah, Syed Husin and Rusnizam were represented by counsel Francis Pereira.
In 2000, the Federal Court maintained the RM7 million awarded in damages to businessman Vincent Tan Chee Yioun in a defamation suit he filed over four articles in a magazine four years earlier.
The then chief justice Eusoff Chin, in dismissing with costs the appeals by two journalists and a magazine publisher, said the court found the award made by the High Court reasonable and based on established principles of law.
The High Court, on Oct 22, 1994, found printer Ling Wah Press Sdn Bhd, MGG Pillai, Hassan Hamzah and Media Printext (M) Sdn Bhd, liable for defaming Tan in the articles published by the Malaysian Industry magazine in the August and October 1993 and January 1994 issues.
The court had ordered the printer to pay RM2 million to Tan as general and aggravated damages, the journalists RM3 million as general damages, and the publisher RM2 million as general damages.
Subsequently, the Federal Court ruled that damages should be capped at a lower sum to balance the right of citizens to freedom of speech and expression.
On Feb 28, 2014, High Court Judicial Commissioner Rosilah Yop ordered blogger Papagomo to pay RM800,000 in damages to opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for defamation, the highest since Tan’s case.
Yesterday, Papagomo, whose real name is Wan Muhammad Azri Wan Deris, settled his outstanding damages amounting to about RM951,260.27, which was inclusive of cost and interest.