'TV3 made no attempt to verify Nizar's tweet'

Media Prima deputy group managing editor Mohd Ashraf Abdullah agreed in the Kuala Lumpur High Court today that TV3 had made no attempt to verify a tweet by Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin of Perak PAS.

Under cross-examination, Ashraf (left), 45, also agreed one of the most important requirements in journalism is that of verification.

He was the first witness for the respondents in a RM50 million defamation suit by Nizar against Sistem Televisyen (M) Bhd and TV3 producer Rohani Ngah.

Ashraf had previously served with New Straits Times Sdn Bhd as a reporter and Kuantan bureau chief, as well as London correspondent, and a news editor.

He agreed with Nizar's lawyer Mohd Fikri Asmuni that news relating to Nizar and the Johor sultan could be considered ‘big’ because of the personalities involved.

Mohd Fikri: Do you agree there is need for verification of the news from the source?

Ashraf: Yes.

Mohd Fikri: As this case involves public figures and as this may affect any one of them (in terms of reputation), do you agree that there was a need to verify with the plaintiff (Nizar)?

Ashraf: I do not agree.

Mohd Fikri: Do you agree that TV3 as a reputable organisation had made no attempt to contact the plaintiff?

Ashraf: I agree.

Mohd Fikri: So there are no visuals or recording on getting Nizar's response?

Ashraf: Yes.

Nizar had earlier testified that TV3's Buletin Utama report had defamed him by twisting his tweet that the Johor sultan's bid for the WWW1 number-plate had ‘used public funds’, which he had never said in the tweet.

He also said that, on May 30, when the report was aired, he had been at home and that there was no attempt by TV3 to contact him.

Five hours enough

Ashraf also told the court that he was informed about the news by an assignment editor, Ing Boon Seng, at about 3pm and the report came out at 8pm.

“Five hours is sufficient for us to publish or broadcast the news,” he said.

Ashraf also, when replying to questions from his lawyer Liew Teck Huat, agreed that the newsroom does not receive any directives or directions from outside on what to broadcast or not.

He maintained that TV3 practises responsible journalism in all matters. However, he admitted that it is a common occurrence for it to receive information about tweets, especially from bloggers.

The group managing editor said on being informed of Nizar’s tweets, he checked Nizar’s twitter account which stated “RM520k bolih dibelanjakan membantu rakyat Melayu Johor masih ramai miskin serta memerlukan bantuan untuk keperluan hidup, bina 20 rumah PPRT”, and there were two subsequent tweets after this.

“I then instructed the assignment editor to write a report on the tweets to be included in the news. We considered this matter newsworthy and deserved coverage as the WWW1 vehicle registration was a hot topic. The media industry has been following the entire process and the winning bidders’ list was even published in the print media on May 28, 2012,” he said.

“There is no doubt that at the time the plaintiff (Nizar) tweeted the statements on Twitter about using RM520,000 for the vehicle registration, was referring to the sultan of Johor. For this reason, I had little doubt that this was a piece of news that certainly qualified as a matter of public interest.”

He said he decided that the station should give this matter news coverage.

Ashraf said besides Nizar’s tweets, the news report also contained an interview with the Johor police chief via telephone, and they broadcast the telephone interview regarding a special team having been set up after the police received eight police reports.

“For the sake of completeness, as well as to present the report as a whole, the news report went on to feature the Tengku Mahkota of Johor’s rebuttal of Nizar’s tweet. We obtained the Tengku Mahkota’s rebuttal/response from his (Tengku Mahkota’s) account,” he said.

“The Tengku Mahkota’s tweets were almost instantaneous in response to Nizar’s tweets. As such the entire report as a whole was presented on Buletin Utama on May 30, 2012. We reported the facts as we see it, without including any undue comments,” said Ashraf.

The senior editor said he approved the news as the bidding was very much discussed by the public, and he maintained that the station exercised responsible journalism in presenting the report.

The trial resumes on Friday with continued cross-examination of Ashraf before Justice Yeoh Wee Siam.