Agenda Daily has taken down article on PM, says portal's lawyer
Agenda Daily has complied with a court order to take down an allegedly defamatory online article against Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, said the news portal's counsel.
Asiah Abd Jalil today said that her client has adhered to the temporary restraining order issued by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Feb 18.
"The defendant (Agenda Daily) has immediately taken down the article as soon as he received the injunction order on Feb 23," the lawyer said when contacted.
The premier's counsel, Joshua Tan, also confirmed that Agenda Daily has taken down the article "Ismail Sabri bimbang jadi PM paling singkat, 'rayu' jangan tarik sokongan" (Ismail Sabri worries of becoming shortest-lived PM, 'begs' for support to remain).
On Feb 18, the court allowed Ismail Sabri's ex-parte application for the injunction order to take down the article as part of his main defamation suit against Agenda Daily.
The plaintiff is suing the news site over the article that was uploaded on Jan 30.
Under the law of civil action, an ex-parte application is one where only one party in a legal action was present during its hearing. The opposite is inter-partes, where both opposing parties are present during the hearing of the application.
The present injunction order is in place until the date of inter-partes hearing of the restraining order.
On the date of the inter-partes application hearing, Agenda Daily's lawyers would have the opportunity to argue for the order to be set aside pending disposal of the main civil action.
Court extends injunction, inter partes hearing on April 27
Today was initially set for an online inter-partes hearing of the injunction application before judicial commissioner Evrol Mariette Peters.
However, due to Agenda Daily's legal team being unable to join the zoom hearing due to a bad internet connection from Taiping, Perak, the court rescheduled the inter-partes hearing to April 27.
With the agreement of lawyers acting for Ismail Sabri and the news portal, Evrol extended the injunction order until April 27. This was confirmed by both Asiah and Tan.
According to the online cause list, the civil action is also set for online case management by the High Court on March 22.
Back on Feb 5, Agenda Daily chief executive officer Muhamad Izwan Mohd Zubit defended the article as a political analysis based on the current scenario.
Ismail Sabri's writ of summons targeted Izwan as the sole proprietor of Agenda Daily Media Enterprise, which operates the Agenda Daily news website.
Through a copy of the suit's statement of claim, Ismail Sabri claimed that the article, "when read in its entirety, contained various malicious, defamatory, and/or untrue statements concerning the plaintiff".
Via the main civil action, the premier is seeking a permanent injunction for the news portal to take down the article and not to repeat the alleged defamatory statement.
Ismail Sabri is also seeking for the defendant to issue a written apology in a term and form yet to be decided. The apology is also to be published on the news portal and two local newspapers within seven days from the date of judgment.
Additionally, the plaintiff seeks general, aggravated and exemplary damages, five percent annual interest on awarded damages, calculated from the date of judgment to date of full settlement, costs to be borne by the defendant on a full indemnity basis, and any other relief deemed fit by the court.
