KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim won his defamation lawsuit today against Utusan Malaysia after the High Court here ruled that the newspaper had “distorted” the opposition leader’s words to suggest he backed the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movement.Justice Datuk VT Singham also said the Umno-owned daily did not practise responsible journalism, in addition to disregarding a golden opportunity to correct itself after Anwar (picture) had sent a legal notice asking for clarification.
“The articles ... are rather a distorted and incorrect version and obviously taken out of context,” Singham said in his judgment.
“The articles have a purpose of its own ...to give rise to a defamatory imputation that the plaintiff is condoning LGBT activities to be legalised which is not true under the circumstances.
“This court is of the considered view that both the articles are capable of defamatory meaning and it is defamatory of the plaintiff.”
The judge said it was “crystal clear” that Anwar did not say that LGBT activities should be legalised in his BBC interview, and the Utusan articles had suggested that Anwar was unfit to hold public office and be the opposition leader.
Anwar was represented by lawyers N. Surendran and Latheefa Koya, while Utusan was represented by Datuk Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin.
The legal cost was set at RM45,000, but damages will be decided on a later date.
“This was a long reasoned judgment supported by extensive legal authorities. It’s a very thorough judgment,” Surendran told reporters outside the courtroom.
The lawyer claimed that today’s judgment is a “devastating indictment” of Utusan Malaysia, and by implication its owner Umno.
“This proves that there is evil continuous slander by Utusan,” Anwar told reporters later, saying that he was also mulling a legal suit against former PAS member Datuk Hasan Ali, whose remark was used to bolster Utusan’s articles.
Anwar had in January last year filed the defamation suit seeking RM50 million in damages and an injunction to stop Utusan and its editor-in-chief from repeating statements accusing him of being a gay rights proponent.
At a hearing on July 18, Anwar had told the court that it was “public knowledge” that Utusan Malaysia was Umno-owned and that it took orders from the party’s president.
He also agreed then that homosexuals should be discriminated against to protect the sanctity of marriage, but pointed out that archaic laws should be reviewed to prevent innocent people from being punished.
Earlier last year, Anwar was acquitted of a charge of sodomising former male aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, with the High Court ruling that the prosecution had not done enough to prove the opposition leader had committed sodomy against Saiful.
Just days after Anwar was exonerated, Utusan Malaysia front-paged a story titled “Anwar ulas isu gay” (Anwar discusses gay rights), claiming the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) de facto leader had told a BBC interview that laws on homosexuality in Malaysia were considered “archaic” and “not relevant”.
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