Upon viewing a report, Mr. A (a politician) had made a statement about Mr. C that he had used the public funds for a national cattle farming project to purchase three units of houses. Mr. C sued Mr. A on the basis that the defamatory statement made had tarnished his reputation and character. Can Mr. C sue Mr. A on the grounds of defamation?<\/p>\n
Q<\/strong>: What is defamation?<\/p>\n A<\/strong>: Defamation is a statement made by a person that tarnishes a person\u2019s reputation. It can be made in writing (considered \u201clibel\u201d) or orally (considered \u201cslander\u201d).<\/p>\n Q<\/strong>: Must Mr. C incur financial losses before he can sue Mr. A?<\/p>\n A<\/strong>: No, he can sue for damages as long as his reputation is tarnished.<\/p>\n Q<\/strong>: Is there any defence to an action for defamation?<\/p>\n A<\/strong>: If Mr. A has genuinely given a view on a fact proven to be true, he can then raise the defence to his statement made, that is, he has only made a \u201cfair comment\u201d rather than a defamatory statement.<\/p>\n Q<\/strong>: What is a \u201cfair comment\u201d?<\/p>\n A<\/strong>: A \u201cfair comment\u201d is a comment given based on proven fact.<\/p>\n Three elements of a \u201cfair comment\u201d:<\/p>\n Q<\/strong>: Is there a cap to compensation on defamation?<\/p>\n A<\/strong>: There is no known cap. The court will look at the facts and the following factors to decide how much the compensation would be:<\/p>\n Q<\/strong>: How long is the limitation period to file a claim for defamation?<\/p>\n A<\/strong>: For West Malaysia, the limitation period is 6 years from the date the defendant published the defamatory statement.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do fair comments made based on facts are not defamatory in nature?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1780,1561],"tags":[1665,1683,3410],"class_list":["post-3619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defamation","category-tort","tag-defamation","tag-fair-comment","tag-tort-law"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
\n