GROUNDS OF JUDGMENT

This is an action for libel by the Plaintiff against the defendants. The basis of the Plaintiffs suit arises from an Article appearing on the front page of the issue of the Berita Harian dated 10th April 2007 in a report headlined, "the construction of Kuala Lumpur Kedah LKIM complex to ACA set out in paragraphs 3 & 4 of the statement of claim (Bundle A) referred to in my judgment as the impugned Article. The defamatory elements and innuendoes of the impugned Article have been set out in Paragraph 6 of the Statement of claim. The 1st to the 3rd defendants have raised the following defences namely:-

(i) The Plaintiff had failed to establish the impugned Article was defamatory in its entirety.

(ii) Even it could be construed as defamatory, the impugned article made no reference to the Plaintiff.

(iii) The defendants could on the facts of this case rely on the defence of qualified privileged and responsible reportage as there was an absence of malice on the part of the 1st to the 3rd defendants. The 4th defendant was not represented at the trial neither was a defence filed, and after the conclusion of the trial, I dismissed the Plaintiff claim against the 1st