Case 4 : Malaysian: Journalist ordered to pay £100,000 damages in Twitter Libel Case

https://inforrm.org/2012/04/29/malaysia-journalist-ordered-to-pay-100000-damages-in-twitter-libel-case/

Summary:  the plaintiff who is the managing director of Gapurna Group of companies had accused journalist Nadeswaran, the defendant for defamoatory publication of statement in twitter. The incident occurred on two different time frame 12 July tweeting his first one as “bumiputra”status and 22 December 2010 tweeting regarding the plaintiff as “land thief”. the defendant was instigated even more with the a certain remarks made on the social media platform when letter was sent to him requesting to bring down those post on Twitter, which he in fact ignored. Plaintiff continues to press on the case filed claiming a total of RM17million There was no defense made by the journalist and admitted the claims made by the plaintiff was true.

Action: High Court Justice Amelia only granted total of RM500,000 and issued ruling order against the defendant, Nadeswaran to refrain from publishing such statements. Due to the high number of followers the defendant has, the court urges Nadeswaran to be more vigilant and sensitive in his postings on social media platform.

Review: internet user are certainly lacking of awareness and knowledge to wholly understand the responsibility and risk being taken for each remarks or statement being made on the internet, public or private. Charges for defamation are not light and they could be sued regardless of anything. The alleged made by defendant to the plaintiff in the first posting clearly shows racism and degrading the character by calling the plaintiff land thief. The unlawful remarks has caused reputational damage to the individual and also Gapurna Companies. The statements were libel and made published at a wider scale due to his high number of followers in Twitter. The defendant can be charged against Section 211 Telecommunication and Multimedia Act 1998 and Section 499 for Defamation.The above case can be further supported with Former mayor awarded $120,000 over defamatory Facebook posts https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/former-mayor-awarded-120-000-over-defamatory-facebook-posts-20181015-p509oq.html