Lynas needed more time to reply to an affidavit filed by...

Lynas needed more time to reply to an affidavit filed by FMT.

PETALING JAYA: The hearing of an application by Australian rare earth miner Lynas to obtain court injunction to stop FMT from further publishing “more alleged defamatory material” has been postponed.

The lawyer representing the news portal, Rueben Mathiavaranam, told reporters today that Lynas had applied for the adjournment as it needed more time to reply to an affidavit which filed by his client yesterday.

High Court judge Prasad Sandosham Abraham had initially set today to hear the injunction in an inter-parte (between the parties) basis after ruling that it should not be ex-party (by one party). He allowed the postponement to July 27.

In the main defamation suit, filed on April 19, plaintiffs Lynas Corporation Ltd and Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd had sued FMT’s parent company, MToday News Sdn Bhd, claiming that the article “Lynas Must Go” dated March 6 also contained “false”, “damaging” and “defamatory” statements.

It was learnt that Lynas has since amended its suit to also include two other articles published in FMT.

In a related suit, Lynas is also suing pressure group Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL) for defamation.

The defendants were SMSL Sdn Bhd, its chairman Tan Bun Teet, and Lim Sow Teow, the latter both being shareholders and directors of the SMSL company.

Lynas had said an article entitled “Civil Society Organisations’ joint statement on Lynas issue: SMSL & NGOs statement against Lynas” dated March 22 contained statements that were also “false”, “damaging” and “defamatory”.

Lynas’ hearing of an application for an injunction to stop SMSL from further alleged defamatory statements is set to be heard on June 19.

For both suits, Lynas was seeking general damages, exemplary damages and aggravated damages, costs and interests as well as other reliefs deemed fit by the court.

Lynas was also asking for an injunction to stop both defendants from publishing defamatory statements or articles until the decision of the trial.

On April 20, Lynas announced that it had commenced defamation proceedings at the High Court against FMT and SMSL for “false and misleading statements” which both had allegedly made



http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2012/06/12/lynas-suit-to-gag-fmt-put-off-to-july-27/