Thursday, Nov 29, 2012
GEORGE TOWN - A lawyer was yesterday awarded RM60,000 (S$24,000) in general damages by the High Court here in his defamation suit against a newspaper.
Judge Datuk G.V. Varghese, however, ordered Khoo Chye Beng and The Star Publication (Malaysia) Bhd to bear their own costs.
Khoo had sued the defendant for RM2 million over an article titled "Sorry honey, we lost the case" in the daily on Oct 28 last year, as well as an online article "Court dismisses 55-year-old's defamation case against school senior assistant" on the same day which, among others, stated that he was the husband of Honey Khoo @ Khoo Lean Kooi, and had represented her in a civil matter at the Sessions Court.
Varghese ruled that by wrongly naming Khoo as Honey's spouse, it had an effect of portraying a lack of professionalism on his part.
On the erratum published by the daily, Varghese ruled that it was wholly unsatisfactory and was a mere correction of facts.
There was no apology which, he noted, would have reasonably mitigated the damage
