Kuching: I have decided to appeal against the decision of the Court of Appeal against me on the “Black Hole” case, not only because the decision of the Court of Appeal imposing an award of RM300,000 in damages and RM200,000 costs against me, but, more importantly, it is my view that the decision of the Court is contrary to the public interest.
In gist, the Court of Appeal has, inter alia, decided that, in Malaysia, a government can sue its citizen for defamation.
In most if not all the Commonwealth countries which practise the common law system (Malaysia is one), the Courts have held that government has no rights to sue for defamation against its citizens. Courts in England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa have all adhered to this position (i.e. a government has no right to sue a person for defamation).
The reason is based on the fundamental principle that Government is elected by the people and should be open to uninhibited criticisms by the people and that to allow a government to sue a citizen for defamation will create an inhibiting effect on freedom of speech.
This widely accepted common law position was totally overturned in my Black Hole case where the Government of Sarawak sued me for defamation and the Courts allowed such action to be maintained by the Government.
So far to the best of my knowledge, in all Commonwealth jurisdictions my Black Hole case is the only case that the Court holds that a Government can sue its citizen for defamation.
In effect, with the precedent set in the Black Hole case, if a citizen criticises a government to be “unfit to govern” or “a hopeless government”, he will be liable to be sued for defamation by the government of the day.
Therefore, as a citizen of the country who believes in our fundamental principles of democracy, I have decided to appeal to the highest court in the country, hopefully to set it right.
My lawyers will be filing the necessary papers to the Federal Court later today, seeking leave to appeal to the Federal Court.
Chong Chieng Jen
DAP Sarawak Chairman
31 July 2026
