Explain criminal defamation charges over stock market articles, DAP man prompts AG

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KUALA LUMPUR – The Attorney-General (AG) must explain why criminal defamation charges are being brought against business journalists who reported on alleged stock market manipulation, Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng said.

The DAP lawmaker said the businessman who was allegedly defamed by business paper The Edge in two articles on alleged penny stock manipulation should have filed a civil defamation suit instead.

“(The AG) is duty-bound to explain to the public his decision to use criminal defamation with taxpayers’ money when it is the reputation of a corporate figure and public-listed companies that is involved.

“The AG should also explain, moving forward, if that means that any defamed individuals and commercial entities can now lodge police reports and expect criminal defamation action by the AG,” Lim said in a statement today.

The Edge publication’s former editor-in-chief, Ahmad Azam Mohd Aris, was charged yesterday with two counts of criminal defamation and had claimed trial to both charges at the Petaling Jaya magistrates’ court.

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