[1] The plaintiffs sued the defendants for defamation. The 1st plaintiff, Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Salleh Ismail, was the Chairman and Director of the 2nd plaintiff, National Feedlot Corporation Sdn Bhd. They claimed that the 1st defendant, En Mohd Rafizi Ramli, a politician who, at the material time, was the Strategy Director of Parti Keadilan Rakyat, had defamed them at a press conference held on 7 March 2012.

[2] Representatives of the 2nd defendant, MKini Dotcom Sdn Bhd, attended the press conference and recorded its proceedings. The 2nd defendant operates a news website known as Malaysiakini as well as an Internet TV site known as KiniTV. After the press conference, the 2nd defendant published an article on its website regarding the allegations made by En Rafizi and subsequently also uploaded a video clip of its proceedings.

[3] The plaintiffs claimed that the 2nd defendant, by publishing the video clip, was also liable for libel.

Material Background Facts

[4] The background facts of this case, so far as they are material to the determination of the facts in issue, are set out in the following paragraphs. It is noted that En Rafizi has dropped his defence of justification, and for th