today Friday July 16, 2010

NEWS

Organisation sues individual in landmark case

contributors to mans blog posted comments alleged to be defamatory
today exclusive

alicia Wong
alicia@mediacorp.com.sg

MP rePresents blogger

Member of Parliament Michael Palmer is now representing blogger Jayne Goh in her appeal against a High Court ruling that Ms Goh had defamed teacher Mrs Janet Wong in a blog post. Mr Palmer, a partner at Harry Elias Partnership, informed the courts of this on Wednesday. The case was first reported by Today last August. Mrs Wong, represented by lawyers Adrian Tan and Ong Pei Ching from Drew & Napier, sued Ms Goh for alleging online that the former was corrupt. Ms Gohs former lawyer, Mr Kang Gim Swee, did not respond to queries by press time. The hearing has been adjourned to Sept 13. alicia Wong

SINGAPORE He set up the blog, and contributors then posted entries and comments alleged to be defamatory. Now, he is being sued in what may be a landmark case about who is legally liable on such websites. This is also one of the very few lawsuits arising from blog posts and one in which an organisation has sued an individual. The Global Indian Foundation (GIF) and its chairman are now locked in this legal tussle with Mr A K Narayanan. GIF is registered with the Singapore Commissioner of Charities as a trust and foundation. It runs and operates the Global Indian International School (GIIS). Mr Narayanan claims that the blog acts as a forum for parents to discuss school matters. In its claim, filed in February last year, GIF said that a posting by a user known as Parents Caucus had painted GIIS unfavourably and accused the school of not responding to parents comments and queries. Another post touched on the transparency of the schools examination results which GIF took to mean that its school was untrustworthy, devious and that

the exam results had been misrepresented, it said in the civil suit. GIF also took issue with comments about the schools charity status. The plaintiffs are thus claiming for libel and aggravated damages to be assessed, and damages for loss of enrolment fees and/or profits. They want an injunction against the defendant from publishing such posts or comments in the future.

Its in the best interests of its students for GIIS to take steps to protect its reputation if its defamed.
Mr r nandakumar, one of giFs lawyers
In his defence, which has been submitted in court and will be heard next week, Mr Narayanan denied making any defamatory posts or comments against both plaintiffs. He argued that, in any case, the posts about GIF were justified because they were true. Mr Narayanan alleged that GIF was being stealthy for suppressing a set of exam results for 2007-2008, and disclosing other results favourable to GIF. He also said that the blogs rules and

commenting policy made it clear that comments were the responsibility of the readers who post them and that the blog does not moderate reader comments. Cases like this, which head to the courtroom, remain relatively rare here, even though lawyers say they have seen up to a 30-per-cent increase in queries on online defamation over the past year. Legal costs continue to prevent people from taking a case to court, said Mr Jonathan Yuen, a partner at Harry Elias Partnership. It is also not common for an organisation to sue an individual for defamation on a blog, said Rajah and Tann partner Lionel Tan. One other case that has been reported involves American International Assurance against blogger Zhu Yong Zhen. Mr Tan does not foresee the increased queries leading to more lawsuits in the future, though. Local bloggers who can be easily identified are generally more careful, he said. Anonymous netizens, meanwhile, are difficult to trace. One of GIFs lawyers, Mr R Nandakumar from KhattarWong, told MediaCorp: GIIS is an educational institution which values its reputation in providing excellent education to its students. Its in the best interests of its students for GIIS to take steps to protect its reputation if its defamed.