Malaysia to pay damages for suspending The Edge publications

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia’s Court of Appeal has ordered Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and the ministry’s secretary-general to pay damages for the suspension order issued on The Edge Communications last year over its 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) reports.

Justice Mohd Zawawi Mohd Salleh, who chaired a three-judge panel, dismissed the appeal by the Home Ministry and senior federal counsel Alice Loke’s argument that The Edge was not entitled to damages relating to the suspension order of two publications by the media group.

“We are not with you (Loke) and we have to dismiss the appeal. The respondents have passed the threshold (in the award of damages) under Order 53(5) (of the Rules of the Court).

“No order is made as to costs,” Justice Zawawi reportedly said.

Both parties would now need to refer back to High Court for the assessment of damages.

At the hearing yesterday, Ms Loke had argued that the suspension order issued by Mr Zahid was well within his power under the Printing Presses and Publications Act and that there was no malice or dishonest intention on Mr Zahid’s part against the Edge.

Mr Darryl Goon, The Edge’s lead counsel, countered that Mr Zahid had acted with reckless indifference in issuing the suspension order.

“It is obvious that the suspension would cause losses and damages as both publications are sold to the public for money,” he submitted.

In suspending The Edge on July 23 last year for three months, the Home Ministry had said that its reporting of 1MDB was “prejudicial, likely to be prejudicial to public order (and) security, likely to alarm public opinion or likely to be prejudicial to public and national interest”, adding that failure to comply with the suspension order would result in the revocation of the publishing permits of the publications.

On Sept 21 last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court quashed the suspension order.

Ms Asmabi Mohamad, the judge presiding over the case back then ruled that the Home Ministry acted irrationally and illegally by issuing the suspension order, also ruling that the latter had breached procedural fairness when issuing a show-cause letter to the publisher.

Among other things, Ms Asmabi had said that the Home Minister was himself “in doubt” on whether The Edge had published its articles by relying on allegedly unverified information on online news portals, especially whistleblower website Sarawak Report.

The suspension order came three weeks after Mr Zahid announced on July 1 that a show-cause letter had been issued to The Edge for publishing what the government deemed to be unverified news on debt-laden 1MDB.

The three-month suspension order was set to end on Oct 27, but The Edge was allowed to resume printing before that date, following the High Court’s Oct 13 dismissal of the Home Ministry’s bid for a stay of the Sept 21 ruling. AGENCIES