Malaysiakini apologises to Taib, withdraws allegation of bribery

Malaysiakini apologises to Taib, withdraws allegation of bribery

Posted on January 5, 2012, Thursday

KUCHING: Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud yesterday received an unqualified apology from online news portal, Malaysiakini and its editor in chief Gan Diong Keng for libellous words published in a series of twelve articles published by Malaysiakini from April 6 to May 3, 2007.

In a suit filed in May 2007 in the Kuala Lumpur High Court, Taib sought an apology, unspecified amount of damages and injunction against Malaysiakini and Gan, for publishing allegations attributed to the Japan Times, a Japanese newspaper, that the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau had decided that payments made by Japanese shipping companies to a Hong Kong based company, Regent Star, were illegal payments.

Malaysiakini alleged in their articles that these payments were ‘kickbacks’ for Taib for timber exports from Sarawak to Japan.

Malaysiakini fails to strike out Taib’s defamation suit

Malaysiakini fails to strike out Taib’s defamation suit
Posted on March 18, 2011, Friday

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysiakini yesterday failed to strike out a defamation suit by Sarawak Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud after the High Court here dismissed its application.

Justice Datuk John Louis O’hara said after looking at the defendant’s submission, the court found that the constitutional issue raised by Malaysiakini that there ‘can never be cause of action’ was baseless and it was not an abuse of the court process.

The judge said that he arrived at the decision after looking at provisions of the Defamation Act and the Federal Constitution. He also ordered Mkini Dotcom which owned the online news portal to pay costs of RM10,000 to Taib, the plaintiff. However, the judge did not set the date for hearing of the defamation suit. In 2007, Taib filed the suit after Malaysiakini ran a series of 12 articles from April 6 to May 3, 2007 which he claimed contained defamatory words against him.