JUDGMENT

Suraya Othman JCA:

Introduction

[1] This is an appeal against the decision of the High Court on 10 June 2016 dismissing the appellant/the plaintiffs claims premised on the tort of defamation and malicious falsehood in respect of three articles and two videos published in the Malaysiakini news portal by the 1st respondent/defendant.

[2] We heard the appeal over two non-consecutive days. On the second day of hearing, that is on 22 June 2017, learned counsel for the appellant advised this Court that the appellant has been voluntarily wound up by its creditors and that he has been given a warrant to act for the appellants behalf on 19 June 2017. This was confirmed by learned counsel for the respondents as per affidavit affirmed on 21 June 2017 (see encl 8). We then proceeded to continue to hear the case and having perused the appeal records and given due consideration to the respective oral and written submissions of counsel, we reserved our decision. We now give our decision and our reasons for the same.

Background Facts

[3] The appellant, Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd ("RAGM") operates a gold mine and produces gold bars at its Carbon-in-Leach ("CIL") plant. The appellant is the only company operating gold mining operations in Bukit Koman, Raub, Pahang.

[4] The 1st respondent, Mkini Dotcom Sdn Bhd is a company that owns and operates an online news portal known as Malaysiakini which website is www.malaysiakini.com. The 2nd respondent, Lee Weng Keat is the assistant news editor of Malaysiakini. The 3rd respondent, Wong Teck Chi is the senior journalist of Malaysiakini. The 4th respondent, Victor TM Tan was at the material time, an intern at Malaysiakini and was pursuing a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.

[5] The appellants claim against the respondents arose out of three articles and two videos published by the 1st respondent on its online news portal, http://www.malaysiakini.com. The subject matter of these articles and videos published in 2012, is in relation to the gold mining activities of the appellant, which the respondents alleged had used cyanide, and that such use had caused serious illness to the villagers and death of wildlife and vegetation and environmental pollution in Bukit Koman. The appellant claimed that the words complained of or the impugned statements in the said articles and videos were false and defamatory in nature and were published by the respondents maliciously with intent to injure the appellants reputation, trade and business. The articles and videos published are as follows:

(a) "Villagers Fear For Their Health Over Cyanide Pollution" dated 19 March 2012 ("the 1st article") which was authored by the 2nd respondent;

(b) "78 pct Bukit Koman Folk Have Cyanide-Related Ailments" dated 21 June 2012 ("the 2nd article") which was authored by the 3rd respondent;

(c) a Video presentation published on 21 June 2012 that was linked with the second article ("the first Video");

(d) "Raub Folk To Rally Against Poisonous Gold" dated 2 August 2012 ("the 3rd article") authored by the 4th respondent;

(e) a Video presentation published on 2 August 2012 that was linked with the third article ("the second Video").

[6] The impugned part of the 1st article which is found in para 7 of the Statement of Claim reads as follows:

(a) "Besides suffering from the unbearable stench overnight, villagers have also found yellow powdery spots around their neighbourhood in Bukit Koman, Raub, where gold-mining activities using cyanide, a hazardous chemical, started three years ago";

(b) "According to the blog, since the commencement of the gold-mining activities, birds such as pigeons and crows, and lizards and vegetable cultivated in the neighbourhood have been found dead";

(c) "Villagers suspect the unexplained deaths, the stench of herbicide during the night, and the illness, are the results of cyanide pollution";

(d) "Committee chairperson Wong Kin Hoong told Malaysiakini that the yellow spots may be residu