MNOW MEDIA Sdn Bhd

On the court record

Marks how a media publisher's defamation exposure is resolved through the established defences and the high threshold for restraining publication, with attention to political speech.

Mnow Media Sdn Bhd appears in the reported judgments as a media company named as a defendant in defamation litigation in the High Court (Mahkamah Tinggi), in matters where its publications were challenged by public figures. Its presence marks decisions on media liability, the defamation defences and the interaction between reputation and freedom of expression in the political sphere.

In one decision, involving the company as a media defendant responsible for publishing, a defamation action was brought where both the plaintiff and other defendants were senior politicians. The reported reasoning engaged the defences of justification of the truth, fair comment, qualified privilege and responsible journalism, and addressed an appeal on the quantum of damages awarded, with the court discussing how the quantum of damages is assessed in defamation cases involving politicians, the threshold applicable to them, and the practice of making a global award — observing that the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression would be rendered illusory if damages were set without regard to that context.

A second matter, in which the company was again a defendant, concerned an application for an ex parte interim injunction to restrain an alleged defamation of a group of plaintiffs, which was dismissed. A third decision addressed an application for an interim injunction in a defamation claim where the court held that the plaintiff had not met the threshold requirements, noting that the articles published were not posted out of thin air or out of malice but were supported by documentary evidence, so that even if the material was wrongly construed the basis for it existed; the application was dismissed. Across the decisions, the company illustrates how a media publisher's exposure to defamation claims is resolved through the established defences and the demanding threshold for restraining publication by interim injunction, with particular attention to speech on matters of public and political interest.