Friday 29 Mar 2024
By
main news image

SHAH ALAM:  A reporter with Mingguan mStar newspaper testified yesterday that Perkasa chief Datuk Ibrahim Ali had told her in an interview that during his audience with the Selangor Sultan, the ruler had discussed at length allegations about Perkasa’s image as a chauvinist group.

Taking the witness stand in the defamation suit by Ibrahim against Sun Media Corp and its two former editors Chong Cheng Hai and Terence Fernandez, the Mingguan mStar reporter Nurul Ain Mohd Hussain refuted Ibrahim’s testimony on Wednesday that she had got her facts wrong about the interview.

Nurul Ain told the Shah Alam High Court that she only made minor changes to her article published on March 28, 2010 and was not “getting her facts wrong” as alleged by Ibrahim.

She clarified that the only changes she made to her article were to take out certain suffixes or expressions such as “lah”, “Iyelah” or other colloquial words in Malay.

When asked by defence counsel Himahlini Ramalingam how she went about interviewing Ibrahim and the procedure following the interview, Nurul Ain said: “My editor asked me to look into it after theSun’s article came out. I made an appointment [with Ibrahim], brought my tape recorder and [went with] my photographer.

“I wrote his answers word by word and it was truthful and accurate. I did not edit anything other than taking out dialects and suffixes.

“The interview was held three years ago and I could not find a copy of the original transcription since after writing it, I never thought about it until yesterday afternoon when I was asked to become a witness,” Nurul Ain said.

She said she has lost the recording and the original transcription.

On Wednesday, Ibrahim had told the court that Nurul Ain had misreported the interview, claiming that she made a mistake and that the Sultan of Selangor had never brought up theSun’s accusations against him.

Earlier, the Sultan’s private secretary Datuk Munir Bani acknowledged that the Sultan had instructed him to prepare the press statement explaining the ruler’s decision not to attend Perkasa’s first AGM.

“All the letters and press statements released by my office were under the instructions of the Sultan and with the blessings of the Sultan. Before I release anything, the Sultan will view it first before giving his approval,” he explained.

Fernandez, who is now the editor of special reports and investigations at The Edge Media Group, also took to the witness stand.

Questioned by the plaintiff’s lawyer Harmy Yusoff regarding his sources, Fernandez maintained that they were accurate and said they were confidential.

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 23, 2015.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share