KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 — The High Court here has ordered a netizen who was sued by Datin Vivy Yusof for allegedly slandering her on the issue of the government helping the B40 and M40 groups affected by Covid-19 outbreak, to file a statement of defence within 14 days, starting today.
The matter was relayed by lawyer Mohd Syakirin Shazwan, who representing Alia Najwa Hassannudin (netizen), to reporters after case management in the chambers of Judge Datin Rohani Ismail today, which was also attended by lawyer Pauling Hee, representing Vivy whose real name is Vivy Sofinas Yusof.
“The letter has been served to my client as the plaintiff (Vivy) had previously failed to serve it by hand. The plaintiff then applied for an order from the court for the summon to be advertised in the newspaper,” he said.
Mohd Syakirin said his client had also entered a memorandum of appearance on Monday and it was then handed over to Vivy, yesterday.
Asked by reporters whether the two parties will try to resolve the suit amicably, Mohd Syakirin said he is still waiting for further instructions from the plaintiff.
He said the court set January 4, next year for further case management.
On June 15, Vivy, 33, filed the suit through Messrs Foong Cheng Leong & Co, by naming Alia, 28, as the sole defendant.
Based on her statement of claim, Vivy said on March 28, she had posted a video on her Instagram account, of a conversation between four entrepreneurs regarding Covid-19 economic impact and the Economic Stimulus Package announced by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Vivy claimed on March 30, the defendant had posted several statements regarding the plaintiff on the defendant’s Facebook and Instagram accounts and wrongly stated that the plaintiff had questioned the government’s action in helping the B40 and M40 groups, despite not contributing to the country’s economy.
The businesswoman claimed that the defamatory words, among others meant that the plaintiff did not sympathise with the B40 and M40 groups and was arrogant and selfish as well as being not professional, besides giving importance to profit alone.
Vivy said, the defamatory words also caused the launch of a petition on a website on April 1, to push for plaintiff’s dismissal from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) board of directors, for insulting the said groups, and the petition have since been signed by over 230,000 Internet users.
She claimed that on April 2, the suit was issued to the defendant and demanded her to stop publishing any defamatory statements against the plaintiff on the social media, and alleged that the defendant had replied the suit through Facebook, however the reply failed to comply to all the plaintiff’s demands.
As such the plaintiff is seeking general, aggravated and exemplary compensation, and an injunction for the defendant to delete the defamatory words besides requesting her to issue a statement of apology to the plaintiff. — Bernama
