PUTRAJAYA: About 30 months ago, the High Court ordered then Umno-controlled TV3 to pay RM1.1 million in damages to Anwar Ibrahim for defamation.
The nation’s oldest private television channel deposited the money into a stakeholder’s account and proceeded to file an appeal but only on the quantum that was awarded.
Since then, numerous case managements have been held in an attempt to fix an appeal hearing date but it did not materialise as the High Court has yet to provide its written judgment.
Anwar’s lawyer J Leela acknowledged the matter was postponed several times as the counsel representing TV3 had written to the High Court to obtain the grounds but had not been able to get them yet.
“On our part, we have no problem with the appeal being heard without the benefit of a written judgment,” she told FMT today after a case management before deputy registrar Mohd Khairi Haron.
Lawyer Nuranisah Ismah Muhammad Husaini represented TV3.
Leela said Khairi had now fixed another case management on Dec 29 to give the appellant time to secure the judgment.
On May 14, 2018, two days after the former deputy prime minister was released from prison after receiving a full pardon from the king, the court awarded RM600,000 in general damages and RM250,000 each for exemplary and aggravated damages.
The TV station claimed in a report that Anwar was involved in the Lahad Datu intrusion in 2013, in reference to armed men from the Philippines who landed near the Sabah east coast town to lay claim to the state for the former Sulu sultanate.
Judge Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim said Anwar had proven his case against TV3 on the balance of probability.
“The defendant failed to practise responsible journalism and there was malice in its report,” he had said.
The judge said TV3 editor Kamaruddin Mape, who wrote the script, did not practise responsible journalism as he did not verify the article’s validity with Anwar.
Ahmad Zaidi said implicating Anwar as the “mastermind” behind the Lahad Datu intrusion was malicious. He said the court awarded aggravated damages to Anwar because TV3 was adamant about going to trial despite publisher Utusan Melayu Sdn Bhd deciding to settle its case over the same report out of court.
On March 8, 2013, Anwar sued Utusan, Utusan’s former group editor-in-chief Abdul Aziz Ishak, TV3, the then Media Prima Bhd news and current affairs, radio and television network group managing editor Shaharudin Abd Latif, and Buletin Utama news editor Ing Boon Seng.
Utusan on its front page published the Lahad Datu article in its March 2, 2013 edition and TV3 republished the article for its Buletin Utama news programme on the same night.
