Utusan Melayu, Two Others Ordered To Pay RM200,000 To Former USM Lecturer - Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR, April 29 (Bernama) -- A former editor-in-chief of the Utusan Group, the Mingguan Malaysia newspaper and Utusan Melayu (M) Berhad were ordered by the High Court Tuesday to pay RM200,000 in damages to a former associate professor of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for publishing a defamatory article about her.

Judge Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus also odered the three defendants to pay costs to the plaintiff, Fatimah Busu @ Che Su, who was previously attached to USM's Humanities faculty.

Mohd Hishammudin said the facts presented before him favoured the plaintiff in this case.

In her suit filed on Aug 26, 1997, Fatimah had named Datuk Johan Jaafar as the first defendant, Mingguan Malaysia (second defendant )and Utusan Melayu (M) Berhad, the publisher and printer of Mingguan Malaysia, as the third defendant.

In her amended statement of claim filed on March 1, 2002, Fatimah, 67, alleged that the defendants had published a defamatory article about her in Mingguan Malaysia's edition of March 2, 1997.

She said the article had smeared her good name and tarnished her image as an academic and literary expert of 20 years, locally and abroad.

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