By Dorcas Ting
KUCHING, April 23: The Federal Court on Tuesday ruled in favour of Chin Siaw Hong in a high-profile defamation case linked to former Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei, bringing an end to a legal dispute that has stretched over eight years.
A three-judge panel unanimously held that content taken out of context from a social media post was insufficient to establish a case of defamation.
In their ruling, the judges stressed that any accusation of defamation must be assessed in the context of the entire article or statement, not just selective excerpts.
Chin had been accused of posting defamatory remarks about Wong on his Facebook account on December 9, 2018. However, the Magistrate’s Court on February 17, 2020, found no prima facie case against him and dismissed the charge.
Prosecutors later appealed the decision to the Kuching High Court, which on February 19, 2021, ordered Chin to enter his defence. He was subsequently found guilty by the Magistrate’s Court on November 9, 2021, and fined RM10,000 or, in default, faced two months in jail.
Unwilling to accept the verdict, Chin filed a final appeal to the Federal Court, which ultimately cleared him of all charges.
Chin was charged under Section 500 of the Penal Code for posting defamatory messages and images via his Facebook account on December 9, 2018, at about 12.54pm.
In his posts on Facebook under the name ‘Hui Tai Lang’, he alleged that “Wong used fraud money to buy luxurious house and luxurious car”, “YB is involved in land fraud case”, “Wong applied for court order to demolish native houses” and “A group of lawyers had used forged identity cards, forged signatures, forged documents to sell land having value RM 4.5million to one native businessman”.
On December 10, 2018, Wong lodged six police reports at the Kuching Police One Stop Centre against different social media pages for slander and defamation. – DayakDaily
