JUDGMENT

Mohd Firuz Jaffril J:

Brief Facts

[1] The Plaintiff is, the publisher for the Tamil Malar, a Tamil language daily, commenced this proceeding for defamation against the Defendant, who is the member of Parliament for Tapah and also the Chairman of the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) for the state of Federal Territory for statements made by the Defendant in three (3) separate forums

[2] In defending the Plaintiff's claim, the defendant denied that the statements made by him were defamatory of the Plaintiff. The Defendant further relies on the defence of fair comment and justification. In addition, the Defendant also commenced a counterclaim for defamation against the Plaintiff for two articles published in Tamil Malar on 3 September 2017 and 5 September 2017.

Principles Applicable In An Action For Defamation

[3] In order to succeed in a defamation suit, a plaintiff must establish the presence of three (3) main ingredients listed below failing which, the action ought to be dismissed. The principles are:

(i) The alleged words directly refer to Plaintiff;

(ii) Those words are defamatory of the Plaintiff; and

(iii) The words complained of were published to third parties.

(see Dr R Kunaseg