PUTRAJAYA (May 30): The Federal Court deferred the hearing of Sarawak Report editor Clare Rewcastle-Brown's application for leave to appeal on Thursday, as the journalist's counsel Americk Sidhu faced internet connection issues.
Rewcastle-Brown is appealing against having to pay Sultanah Nur Zahirah of Terengganu RM300,000 for defaming the royalty in a book titled The Sarawak Report — The Inside Story of the 1MDB Exposé.
The book had purportedly linked Nur Zahirah with fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, who is better known as Jho Low. The author had admitted a case of mistaken identity, whereas it should have been Nur Zahirah’s sister-in-law Tengku Datuk Rahimah Sultan Mahmud.
As proceedings began online on Thursday, Americk’s sound began to break up, resulting in Federal Court judge Tan Sri Nallini Pathmanathan, who was leading a three-member bench, to adjourn the case and call other cases.
Nallini sat with Datuk Nordin Hassan and Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil on the bench.
As Americk was still having problems with the internet, Nallini adjourned the whole matter, despite Rewcastle-Brown and a representative of the Terengganu palace being present. It is understood that Americk was attending the proceedings from overseas.
The bench ordered the matter to go for case management.
In December last year, the Court of Appeal allowed Nur Zahirah’s appeal, and ordered the author of the report and Gerakbudaya Enterprise publisher Chong Ton Sin and printer Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd to pay RM300,000 in damages and costs of RM120,000.
The appellate bench in allowing Nur Zahirah’s appeal agreed that the High Court’s over-analysis of specific words should have been avoided, and an ordinary reader's comprehension of the impugned statement ought to be taken into account.
The panel said that the High Court had considered extrinsic evidence or the dictionary meaning of specific words in the impugned statement, and noted that this was not the correct approach in determining the statement's "natural and ordinary" meaning.
The panel noted that the law does not confine the statement to its "literal meaning", but also considers the "context" in which it was used.
Judge Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli, who wrote the unanimous decision, said the book was published in August 2018, about five months after the 14th general election, when 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and Jho Low's connection to the scandal was a heated campaign topic.
"The defamatory part of the statement can be seen in the allegation that the [sultanah] was said to have supported Jho Low to be appointed to the advisory position in Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA)," the judge said in reference to 1MDB's predecessor.
The appellate bench held the view that a reasonable person, using their common sense of the prevailing circumstances at that time, would derive the meaning as pleaded by the sultanah — that she used her position to help Jho Low get the position at TIA, that she had influence in the state administration, and that she was involved in alleged corrupt practices.
Nur Zahirah was represented by A Vishnu Kumar and Datuk Mohd Haziq Pillay.