KUALA LUMPUR (July 9): AirAsia Bhd has filed a suit against Wee Choo Keong, the owner of blog http://weechookeong.com, for knowingly and intentionally publishing false and malicious statements defamatory to the low-cost carrier, damaging its reputation.

Wee is also the newly appointed chairman of Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board (Tourism Malaysia).

In a statement today, AirAsia said Wee has regularly published many false, misleading and disparaging statements on the blog, including an article entitled “Why Liow & MAHB encouraged AirAsia to owe RM50 million PSC (passenger service charge)/airport tax?” dated April 20.

AirAsia said Wee has failed to respond to the company’s solicitor’s letter demanding a retraction and the carrier has served Wee their writ of summons.

AirAsia Regional Head of Legal Amir Faezal Zakaria said in the statement that AirAsia has always operated its business professionally including in the dealings with the regulators.

“The many misleading and defamatory statements published by Wee are intended to mislead the public and damage our reputation.

“AirAsia has filed a suit because our reputation has been damaged by this conduct in addition to our efforts to correct the disinformation published about AirAsia,” he added.
 
At 3.10pm, AirAsia, the aviation stock that has been under pressure, was traded at RM1.29, down one sen or 0.77%, with 52.45 million shares changing hands with a market capitalisation of RM3.59 billion. It was the third most actively traded counter on Bursa Malaysia.