Court: S'wak Report founder defamed sultanah, RM300k damages

Court: S'wak Report founder defamed sultanah, RM300k damages


Clare Rewcastle-Brown and two others were ordered to pay RM300,000 in defamation damages to Terengganu Sultanah Nur Zahirah.

A three-person Court of Appeal bench chaired by Hadhariah Syed Ismail also ordered Rewcastle-Brown and two others to pay RM120,000 in legal costs to the state royal.

The appellate court ruled that Rewcastle-Brown (above, right) defamed Nur Zahirah through the Sarawak Report founder’s book ‘The Sarawak Report - The Inside Story of the 1MDB Expose’.

Besides Rewcastle-Brown, the other two respondents targeted by the appeal were Gerakbudaya Enterprise publisher Chong Ton Sin, and printing company Vinlin Press Sdn Bhd.

Reading the ruling on behalf of fellow bench members Hadhariah and Mohamed Zaini Mazlan, judge Azhahari Kamal Ramli today said the Kuala Lumpur High Court erred in dismissing the Terengganu Sultanah’s defamation suit in October last year.

Azhahari said the lower court should have just considered the impugned statement and not indulge in unnecessarily elaborate analysis.

He said the appellate bench is of the view that one only needs to look at the statement - which dealt with the allegation that the Terengganu Sultanah helped 1MDB-linked fugitive Low Taek Jhow (Jho Low) secure a position in the state-owned Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), which later morphed into the Finance Ministry-owned 1MDB.

“We are of the opinion that in determining the meaning of the statement, only only need to look at the statement and not the dictionary meaning,” he said.


Azhahari said a reasonable person reading the allegation would have thought the plaintiff supported Low to obtain the position in TIA, thus exposing the sultanah to public contempt.

“She (Rewcastle-Brown) did not check beforehand whether the sultanah was even involved in the setting up of TIA,” he said.

2018 Court action

On Nov 21, 2018, the sultanah filed the civil action which named not only Rewcastle-Brown but Chong and Vinlin Press as well.

The plaintiff alleged that Rewcastle-Brown used defamatory statements in the book, which Vinlin Press printed in August 2018.

The plaintiff claimed she was not involved in either the administration or the setting up of TIA and alleged that the statements caused her embarrassment and tarnished her reputation.

She was seeking RM100 million in damages and wanted the second defendant Chong to withdraw the books containing the statements, as well as stop the third defendant Vinlin Press from printing more copies of the book.

In their statement of defence, the three defendants denied they had ever accused Nur Zahirah of being involved in corruption.

Meanwhile, a separate criminal court case against Rewcastle-Brown concerning the same portion of the book is still ongoing.