Cite NSTP (NST & Berita Harian) for prejudice and subjudice

ANALYSIS. The New Straits Times Press (NSTP) and individuals who are plaintiffs in Rocky and Jeff’s defamation suits SHOULD BE cited for contempt of court!

Listen! We are telling you with concrete evidence that The NSTP is prejudice against blogger Rocky, and subjudice against blogger Jeff Ooi for printing articles pertaining to their defamation suits on January 24 and 25.

And how Malaysia’s Prime Minister has enslaved himself to the wills of his own servants!

EVIDENCE 1 - This was strategically timed by The NST to go on print on January 24 (Page 2), the eve of Rocky’s trial:

In the report, The NST made direct inference to the plaintiffs and said, in portions highlighted in red above, the following:

Speaking later, Abdullah said the government would not censor bloggers but they had to be responsible and that they could be subject to defamation, sedition and other laws.

“They cannot hide or take advantage of a situation and do something against the law,” he said when asked to respond to the suit being taken by the New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd, its deputy chairman Datuk Kalimullah Hassan, chief executive officer Datuk Syed Faizal Syed Albar and former group editor Brendan Pereira against Ahirudin Attan and Ooi Chuan Aun over their web postings.

He said bloggers could not plead ignorance of the laws as freedom without responsibility would be anarchy.

To the international community, notably the international press, Abdullah’s intimidating posture is seen as openly soliciting support for The NST’s action. This is clearly evident in the January 25 edition of Sydney Morning Herald, which ran the headline: Malaysian PM defends legal action against bloggers.

The intro of the Australian paper said:

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has defended legal action launched against two Malaysian bloggers, saying the Internet was not exempt from defamation laws, a report said.

Can you imagine what outsiders and foreign investors would think of Malaysia as a democratic country with Abdullah’s statement now being spread across the world, that a Prime Minister commenting on a subject pre-determined as subjudice in the statement of claims against the bloggers his own newspaper had accused?

EVIDENCE 2 - The next day, The NST tightened the screw on Rocky further by printing this on January 25 (Page 6), the day Rocky had to preliminarily put his fate in the hands of the Kuala Lumpur High Court that was hearing his interparte injunction.

The damage to Rocky is serious as The NST has given its story a 6-column treatment — you and the Judge can’t miss it:

In the report, The NST said, in portions highlighted in red above, the following::

(Kuala Lumpur Bar chairman) Lim (Chee Wee) agreed with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who said in London on Tuesday that although bloggers would not be restricted, they could be subject to defamation, sedition and other laws.

“They cannot hide or take advantage of a situation and do something against the law,” he said.

EVIDENCE 3 - To rub it in further, on the day Rocky was scheduled for his hearing at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, Berita Harian (a NSTP newspaper helmed by Hishamuddin as its Group EIC, and more importantly, a plaintiff in the defamation against Rocky) ran this story on January 25 (Page 2) spread over 4 columns:

In the report, Berita Harian explicitly framed the two bloggers by subjecting them to trial by media, in portions highlighted in red above, as follows:

Kelmarin, Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi berkata pemilik laman forum atau blog tidak bebas daripada dikenakan tindakan undang-undang serta harus bertanggungjawab terhadap apa yang mereka lakukan.

Perdana Menteri berkata, walaupun kerajaan berpegang kepada dasar tidak menapis kandungan di internet, pengendali blog harus memahami ada undang-undang fitnah dan hasutan yang boleh dikuatkuasakan.

“Mereka tidak boleh menyembunyikan diri atau mengambil kesempatan melakukan sesuatu melanggar undang-undang. Mereka harus tahu dan tidak boleh melindungi serta berharap dilindungi dengan perlindungan tertentu.

Abdullah berkata, media sama ada cetak, elektronik dan internet termasuk pemilik laman blog mempunyai tanggungjawab dan beliau tidak mahu wujud kebebasan tanpa tanggungjawab kerana ia akan membawa kehancuran.

Perdana Menteri berkata demikian mengulas tindakan The New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd (NSTP) dan pegawai kanannya memfailkan saman fitnah terhadap Ahirudin Attan dan Ooi Chuan Aun berhubung beberapa artikel dalam laman blog mereka.

NSTP dan plaintif lain – Timbalan Pengerusinya, Datuk Kalimullah Hassan; Ketua Eksekutif, Datuk Syed Faisal Albar; Ketua Pengarang Kumpulan, Datuk Hishamuddin Aun dan bekas Pengarang Kumpulan New Straits Times (NST), Brendan Pereira, memfailkan saman itu di Mahkamah Tinggi Kuala Lumpur, 4 Januari lalu.

Mengikut laporan akhbar, kedua-dua saman fitnah itu dikemukakan berhubung beberapa artikel dan komen yang disiarkan atau dibenarkan untuk disiarkan oleh Ahirudin dan Ooi dalam laman blog masing-masing.

The picture is clearer, much clearer now! There is a sinister link between Prime Minister/Umno President Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and The NSTP (and Kalimullah Hassan, Hishmauddin Aun, Brenden John Pereira and Syed Faisal Albar) behind the defamation suits against the two bloggers.

The ties that bind

There is this thing called “the ties that bind”. Abdullah is the No. 1 in Umno. Umno owns Media Prima, which majority-owns and controls The NSTP (See evidence below, source: The Star, Jan 9, 2007).

The NSTP owns New Straits Times and Berita Harian (See evidence below, source: Bursa Malaysia), and The NSTP, where Kalimullah is editorial adviser, Hishmauddin the Group Editor-in-Chief and Syed Faisal the CEO, are interested parties who sue the bloggers.

First — AND THIS IS EVIDENCE 4 – on the eve of Rocky’s hearing, they got national news agency Bernama (whose chairman is Annuar Zaini Zaini Annuar who did the PM in by leading him on the floppy interview over TV3 last year) to allow Abdullah to incriminate the bloggers with his framing. This is what Bernama transmitted to its media subscribers and masses worldwide for global consumption:

Frame as he did, and Abdullah accused bloggers as people who try to use the Internet to run away from law, and threatened them with defamation and sedition. Abdullah also insinuated that the two bloggers on trial are “bloggers (who) could not plead ignorance of the laws as freedom without responsibility would be anarchy”. The Jan 23 interview appeared on January 24 papers.

Next, both NST and Berita Harian started the spin-doctoring machine to rub it in on January 25, so that the Judge could read it on the day of Rocky’s hearing and be influenced by Abdullah’s inference. We have shown that to you, above, didn’t we?

So, how more sinister can it be for people surrounding the man that tries to sell “Islam Had-Hari”?

We gave you an early analysis on January 25 (after the Rocky’s interparte injunction hearing), that Abdullah should be cited for his made-in-London statement on January 24 (the eve of Rocky’s hearing) for

1. contempt of court by commenting specifically on the bloggers’ defamation suits
2. using Executive power to influence the judiciary on the outcome of the bloggers’ suits

With that, the entire spin-doctoring machinery of The NSTP Group of papers worked over time, and the last we checked, Kalimullah was still the editorial advisor, Hishamuddin the Group EIC and Syed Faisal the CEO. That is, by the way, we have not mentioned about the Media Prima stable of mouthpieces that include TV3, ntv7, TV8 and TV9, the radio stations and e-media.com.my websites!

Combine their newspaper circulation and readership, and the broadcast media’s listeners and viewship, and the online portal’s eyeballs reached, what could have been the collatoral damaged inflicted unto Rocky and Jeff — even before the trial has begun?

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand the conspiracy. A reader has written to this blog, whose viewpoints we tend to agree after seeing the facts and evidence. Poster Lubok Melayu said:

Libra, you are dot on. They published the PM’s comments, filled with innuendos against the bloggers, and then sought the views of “experts” to further influenced people’s minds that the NSTP is really the one being bullied and the bloggers are monsters!

I would like to see our heroes’ lawyers, who are not big guns like their opponents’ lawyers Shearn, put this to the learned Judge.

Subjudice? How can my views or Libra’s views published left in a blog like Rocky’s Bru be more influential or damning than the PM’s views published in NST and Berita Harian (print and on-line) and the group’s televisions and radio stations?

Oh, OK, maybe the people don’t believe the PM anymore so our views are more credible than Abdullah’s. But the NSTP newspapers, on-line, tv and radio published and broadcast the views of eminent people on the day Libra said they did, and that is very damning, subjudice, and prejudice, indeed.

Can I aSk this influential blog to re-publish what the NST and BH publish so everyone can read the article that appeared on the 25th, the day Rocky went to court.

IN SUMMARY, it is a foregone conclusion that Abdullah has abused Executive power to influence the Judiciary and swing Court decision to the favour of The NSTP which his party owns, and to the individual plaintiffs who are his political slaves.

Abdullah should be cited for contempt of court for making the statement. He is an interested party in the NSTP-vs-Bloggers defamation suits as he is the party president of Umno, which owns The NSTP Group that is now suing the bloggers, gagging them by abusing the subjudice clauses, and yet acting prejudice and subjudice against them.

It is also a foregone conclusion that The NSTP is evidently in contempt of court as the company and the individual plaintiffs, except Brenden John Pereira (as he is already not an NSTP employee on record), have allowed the newspapers under their joint leadership to publish, or cause to publish the cited articles that are prejudice against Rocky, who has applied to strike out the suit.

It is also a further foregone conclusion that, by so doing on the part of The NSTP, it has act subjudice and inflicted irreparable damage to Jeff Ooi, who has been served an ex-parte by the plaintiffs pending the hearing of the interparte injunction on January 30 — – the plaintiffs had itself cited subjudice in its Statement of Claims to publish materials and comments explicit to the suit — while the plaintiffs themselves, joint and several, had committed subjudice against the defendant they had sued.

We strongly hope practitioners in the Common Law will take note of this latest round of the Executive interfering with the Judiciary. If Mahathir Era was bad, this round is far worse.

Abdullah had done us in with the aid of, none others, but the Press (and responsible journalism) that are regarded as the FOURTH ESTATE of democracy!

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)