KUALA LUMPUR: Lynas Corporation Limited and Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd yesterday failed in their bid to obtain an injunction to restrain ‘Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas’ (SMSL), an anti-Lynas group, and five others from further publishing a defamatory article on Lynas.
High Court Judge Datuk John Louis O’Hara dismissed Lynas’ application with RM5,000 costs.
In his ruling, O’Hara said the court, at this stage, could not conclude whether the statement was defamatory or otherwise, until the court heard the evidence in a full trial.
The judge found that public interest was a relevant element and agreed with the defendants’ submissions that the public had a right to the information.
“The affidavit evidence before me is not sufficient to convince the court that the defendants will fail in the trial,” he
said.
In the injunction application, Lynas had sought for the defendants to remove the article titled ‘Civil Society Organisations Joint Statement on Lynas Issue: SMSL Malaysian NGO statement Against Lynas’ from its blogsite until disposal of the suit.
On April 19, Lynas Corporation of Sydney, Australia, and Lynas Malaysia filed the suit against SMSL Sdn Bhd and its two directors, Tan Bun Teet and Lim Sow Teow, and three volunteers, Hang Chong Leung, Lee Chow Fong and Ismail Abu Bakar, over a defamatory article published on its blogsite on March 22.
After the ruling, the defendants’ counsel, Datuk Bastian Pius Vendargon, informed the court that he would apply for the case to be transferred to the Kuantan High Court.
The court fixed Aug 14 for case management. — Bernama