Court of Appeal ups Jason Lo’s defamation damages to RM300,000

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has increased the damages awarded to former Tune Talk chief executive officer Jason Jonathan Lo from RM200,000 to RM300,000 after upholding a High Court ruling that found The Star and three journalists liable for defamation.

A three-member bench led by Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah, sitting with Datuk Faizah Jamaludin and Datuk Ong Chee Kwan, unanimously allowed Lo’s appeal on the quantum of damages.

The appellate court also dismissed the appeal by Star Media Group Bhd and its three employees against the 2023 High Court decision, which found them liable for defamation over two newspaper articles and a Facebook post published in 2019.

The articles were published in The Star on May 16 and 25, 2019, while the Facebook post was uploaded on May 25, 2019.

The court also ordered Star Media Group and the journalists to publish a full retraction of the articles and post, and to pay RM50,000 in costs to Lo.

Delivering the grounds of judgment, Datuk Faizah Jamaludin said the bench found no appealable error in the High Court’s findings.

The judges upheld the ruling that the publications were defamatory and rejected the defendants’ reliance on the defences of justification and qualified privilege.

Faizah said the key issue was whether the words used would reasonably lead those acquainted with the plaintiff to identify him, even if he was not expressly named.

She said the defendants’ argument that the High Court relied too heavily on social media comments was rejected, adding that identification could be established without calling the makers of those comments.

“The law does not require witness testimony in every case. Identity may be proven by witnesses, but it may equally be established where the court is satisfied that an ordinary reasonable reader acquainted with the plaintiff would understand the words to refer to him,” she said.

She added that descriptors used in the articles, including a former telco CEO, a local musician and a father of three, formed a sufficiently distinctive profile.

“The High Court was entitled to conclude that persons acquainted with the plaintiff would reasonably understand that the article refers to him,” she said.

Lo was represented by lawyer Alfred Chong, while Izral Khairy and Esther Soo acted for Star Media Group and the journalists.

In 2023, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that the articles were defamatory and implied dishonourable conduct, ordering RM200,000 in damages before the Court of Appeal enhanced the award.

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المصدر: New Straits Times