Rosilah Yop JC:

THE PLAINTIFF’S CASE

[1]The plaintiff is the leader of the opposition party in Parliament, member of Parliament for the Permatang Pauh constituency, the chief of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (‘PKR’) and served as Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister from 1993 to 1998 and Minister of Finance from 1990 to 1998. The plaintiff is known internationally as a statesman and political leader.

[2]The defendant is the owner and operator of a website/blog with the URL in www.papagomo.com and known as ‘Papa Gomo’.

[3]On 16 March 2013, 17 March 2013, 19 March 2013 and 20 March 2013, defendant website www.papagomo.com had defamed the plaintiff through statements in the articles and published of the following:

(a)BREAKING NEWS — Video Seks Anwar Ibrahim dan Gay Tersebar;

(b)XXX — Video Anwar Ibrahim;

(c)Saman Homoseksual RM100 Juta — Permohonan Maaf Papa Gomo Kepada Anwar Ibrahim

that contains defamatory statements as pleaded in paras 3, 4 and 5 of the statement of claim.

[4]The defendant willfully and maliciously published the defamatory statements with the intention to discredit the plaintiff to show that he is an immoral person, not dignified, ineligible to hold public office, not eligible to become political leader, not fit to be Prime Minister and a leader who is not responsible and cannot be trusted.

[5]The plaintiff through his solicitor, Messrs Edwin Lim, Suren & Soh was on 19 March 2013 demanded the defendant to retract, apologise and pay compensation but the defendant has failed to do so.

THE DEFENDANT’S CASE

[6]The defendant at all material times is not the owner, operator and/or authors of articles or responsible for the publication of any article in any blog that has a URL in www.papagomo.com.

[7]The defendant has never published and/or caused to be published and/or distribution of any article and/or any statements defamatory and/or any images and/or video and/or web link that displays a series of images on 16 March 2013, 17 March 2013, 19 March 2013 and 20 March 2013.

[8]The defendant never accused the plaintiff of being immoral, not dignified, not fit to hold public office, not fit to be a political leader of the country, not fit to be the Prime Minister of Malaysia, is a leader who is irresponsible and cannot be trusted.

[9]The defendant did not take any action until the publication of the defamatory statements and never maliciously to dishonor the plaintiff or lead the plaintiff to suffer severe injuries to character, personal reputation, political and affect the plaintiff’s position.

[10]The website has no known owner and no publication has taken place because anyone who reads anything contained in the website/blog has read completely voluntarily. In short, if there is any issue, it is done by the readers themselves. This is different compared to the issue involving newspapers or magazines.

[11]Alternatively, if there is any truth in the statements issued (if any), those who had caused the publication and/or publication of any article and/or any defamatory statements and/or any images and/or video and/or link the website presents a series of images on the website have been doing it for conditional coverage of events and details are basic comment, public interest and justification.

ISSUES TO BE TRIED

[12]Agreed issues to be tried has been tendered in court and marked as D. The issues are as follows:

(a)sama ada defendan telah pada tarikh 16 Mac 2013, 17 Mac 2013, 19 Mac 2013 dan 20 Mac 2013 telah memfitnah plaintif melalui perkataan-perkataan di bawah artikel/penyiaran berikut:

(i)BREAKING NEWS — Video Seks Anwar Ibrahim dan Gay Tersebar;

(ii)XXX — Video Anwar Ibrahim;

(iii)Saman Homoseksual RM100 Juta — Permohonan Maaf Papa Gomo Kepada Anwar Ibrahim

(b)sama ada defendan merupakan pemilik dan/atau penerbit dan/atau penulis di laman web www.papagomo.com;

(c)sama ada defendan boleh dikaitkan dengan laman web www.papagomo.com dan perkataan-perkataan tersebut;

(d)sama ada perkataan-perkataan tersebut membawa kepada maksud-maksud dan difahami sebag