Varghese George J:

This was an action by the plaintiff against the defendant for damages in libel allegedly arising from material printed and published in a daily newspaper with a wide circulation in the nation.

The plaintiff was at the material time of the publication the Chief Minister of the State of Pulau Pinang, the Member of Parliament for the Bagan Parliamentary Constituency and the State Assembly Member for the State Constituency of Air Puteh. The plaintiff was also the Secretary-General of the Democratic Action Party (‘DAP’).

The defendant admitted that it was the owner, publisher, and printer of the newspaper under the banner name Utusan Malaysia on weekdays (and Mingguan Malaysia on Sundays) where the alleged defamatory material was published and circulated.

It was the plaintiff’s allegation that the defendant had wrongfully and with intention to defame the plaintiff published in the Utusan Malaysia issue of 20 December 2010 an article under the title ‘Kebiadaban Guan Eng’ and in para 4 of the statement of claim the following paragraphs from the contents of that article were specifically identified to have defamed the plaintiff:

Jika ucapan Lim Guan Eng di Konvensyen Pakatan