Bersih files defamation suit against NST
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The Bersih coalition has filed a defamation suit against English-language daily New Straits Times (NST) over its article accusing the pro-electoral reform group of conspiring to destabilise the government.
“We
have studied the article very carefully and we find that the article
makes a lot of false accusations about Bersih and the nature of its
activities,” said the coalition’s steering committee member Andrew Khoo.
The coalition had previously threatened to sue New Straits Times soon after the front-page article was published on Sept 21 last year, unless there is a retraction and apology.
Khoo told reporters after filing the suit at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today that written demands on Oct 2 and Oct 3 last year to retract the article were not entertained, nor did it publish Bersih’s response to the accusations.
This forced the coalition to use legal means to “set the record straight”, he said.
“This is not something we launched willingly. This is something we looked at very, very carefully. We have also looked at the situation of the country. In some ways, the article seemed to ride along a series of articles that basically makes unwarranted allegations at different NGOs.
“So we felt that it was important for the sake of official records, and also in support of the truth that we take this action. It was not something we took lightly, and we paused to consider our actions and its consequences,” said Khoo, when asked why it took Bersih about four months to file the suit.
The coalition, which is represented by lawyer Daniel Albert (right)
in the suit, is seeking an unspecified sum of damages, as well as an
injunction against the paper from continuing to publish the defamatory
words, including the ones in its online edition.
Those named as the suit’s plaintiffs are Bersih’s 15 steering committee members, including Ambiga Sreenevasan, A Samad Said, Maria Chin Abdullah, Hishamuddin Rais, and Khoo.
Meanwhile, New Straits Times Press Bhd and the offending article’s author, Farrah Naz Karim, have been named as respondents to the suit. A notice of the suit has yet to be sent to them in writing.
The allegedly defamatory article accuses Bersih, along with several other groups such as Malaysiakini, human rights NGOs Suaram and Lawyers for Liberty, and pollster Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research of receiving foreign funding meant to “destabilise the government”.
The groups have since denied the latter’s allegation and slammed the alleged link between receiving funding from the National Endowment for Democracy and destabilising governments as “simplistic and sweeping”, and that none of those implicated were contacted for their right of reply.
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“We
have studied the article very carefully and we find that the article
makes a lot of false accusations about Bersih and the nature of its
activities,” said the coalition’s steering committee member Andrew Khoo.
The coalition had previously threatened to sue New Straits Times soon after the front-page article was published on Sept 21 last year, unless there is a retraction and apology.
Khoo told reporters after filing the suit at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today that written demands on Oct 2 and Oct 3 last year to retract the article were not entertained, nor did it publish Bersih’s response to the accusations.
This forced the coalition to use legal means to “set the record straight”, he said.
“This is not something we launched willingly. This is something we looked at very, very carefully. We have also looked at the situation of the country. In some ways, the article seemed to ride along a series of articles that basically makes unwarranted allegations at different NGOs.
“So we felt that it was important for the sake of official records, and also in support of the truth that we take this action. It was not something we took lightly, and we paused to consider our actions and its consequences,” said Khoo, when asked why it took Bersih about four months to file the suit.
The coalition, which is represented by lawyer Daniel Albert (right)
in the suit, is seeking an unspecified sum of damages, as well as an
injunction against the paper from continuing to publish the defamatory
words, including the ones in its online edition.Those named as the suit’s plaintiffs are Bersih’s 15 steering committee members, including Ambiga Sreenevasan, A Samad Said, Maria Chin Abdullah, Hishamuddin Rais, and Khoo.
Meanwhile, New Straits Times Press Bhd and the offending article’s author, Farrah Naz Karim, have been named as respondents to the suit. A notice of the suit has yet to be sent to them in writing.
The allegedly defamatory article accuses Bersih, along with several other groups such as Malaysiakini, human rights NGOs Suaram and Lawyers for Liberty, and pollster Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research of receiving foreign funding meant to “destabilise the government”.
The groups have since denied the latter’s allegation and slammed the alleged link between receiving funding from the National Endowment for Democracy and destabilising governments as “simplistic and sweeping”, and that none of those implicated were contacted for their right of reply.
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