Our lawyers will handle the matter

SITI NURHALIZA VERSUS MASEU
‘Our lawyers will handle the matter’
ADLY SYAIRI RAMLY
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23:
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“We’ll leave it to our lawyers” — this was the response from Siti Nurhaliza Productions (SNP) when contacted by The Malay Mail yesterday to the MAS Employees Union (MASEU) statement that they would not apologise.

A SNP representative said she could not comment on the matter as their lawyers are currently out of the country.

“When we first sent MASEU a notice of demand, we did not expect that they would go to the Press with it,” she said.

“Now that they did and the Press has picked it up, things are being blown out of proportion.”

The representative said that neither Siti nor SNP wants a fight with MASEU or prolong the issue.

“We just wanted an apology because what they said has or will somehow affect Siti Nurhaliza’s reputation as a public figure and SNP’s reputation as a company,” she said.

On MASEU’s claims that it did not mention Siti’s name in its Press statement, the SNP representative said they can deny that they didn’t mention Siti’s name but they can’t deny that they mentioned sponsoring a local singer for a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London because it’s already all over the Press.

“If it’s not Siti, please reveal the name of the singer that they were referring to,” said the representative, adding that they do not want Siti and SNP to be seen as one of the reasons for the financial problems faced by Malaysia Airlines (MAS).

“For the record, MAS only sponsored six tickets. We went there with more than 100 people. Whether MAS had sponsored the six tickets or not, we would still have gone to London,” she said.

http://www.mmail.com.my/

We will not apologise, says MAS union

P. SELVARANI and SUSHMA VEERA
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 23:
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“Sorry, but we are NOT apologising!” This is the message the Malaysia Airlines System Employees Union (MASEU) officially conveyed to the lawyers of pop princess Siti Nurhaliza Taruddin yesterday following the singer’s demand of a public apology over alleged defamatory remarks.

MASEU secretary Abdul Malek Ariff said the union is not going to apologise to the singer as it had done no wrong.

“We see no reason to apologise as there was no element of defamation either in our Press statement or during the Press conference,” he told The Malay Mail yesterday.

Siti Nurhaliza had, through her lawyers, sent a notice of demand to the union last week, seeking a public apology over remarks that it allegedly made concerning her concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London earlier this year.

The singer had threatened to sue MASEU for RM1 million if it does not publicly apologise for alleging that one of the reasons for the national carrier’s financial losses was sponsoring the singer as well as her team of musicians and dancers for her concert at the Royal Albert Hall on April 1.

In her letter of demand, Siti Nurhaliza claimed that MASEU president Alias Aziz had made the remark during a Press conference at the MASEU office in USJ10 Taipan on Nov 16. The alleged statement was published in an English language daily the following day.

In the report headlined “Union: Don’t Punish Staff”, Alias was quoted as saying: “MAS spent a huge amount on their sponsorship programme, including sponsoring a local singer and an entourage of musicians and dancers to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London.”

He made the comment in relation to the losses incurred by MAS as being the result of bad planning and dubious decisions by the management.

Abdul Malek stressed that the union saw no necessity to apologise as it had never mentioned the singer’s name at any time.

“The subject matter of the whole Press conference was about the airlines’ mismanagement of its funds and the need for it to cancel its sponsorship programmes,” he said.

Meanwhile, MASEU executive secretary Mustafar Maarof said their lawyers had written to the singer’s lawyers yesterday, stating that their demand for a retraction or public apology was baseless as the union’s statement did not contain any element of defamation and neither was any representation made to the effect.

He said Siti’s lawyers should have sent a letter seeking clarification instead of sending them a notice of demand.

“If they had called us, we could have clarified the matter. We would have also given them a copy of the Press release,” said Mustafar.

http://www.mmail.com.my/

Lecturer’s case to be mentioned on Jan 16

JONATHAN CHEN
PENANG, Nov 19:
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The case of a college lecturer charged with three counts of defaming singer Siti Nurhaliza will be mentioned on Jan 16.

Magistrate M. Rajalingam fixed the new date for mention after defence counsel Yunos Shariff informed the court that he has yet to get an answer from the Attorney-General’s Chamber in Putrajaya to review charges against his client.

Last May, the defence appealed to the A-G’s chamber to review the charges against his client.

Yunos said the defence was also awaiting the decision of the Shah Alam High Court concerning an appeal made by another defendant linked to the case.

On Oct 14, Datuk Sharifah Aini Syed Jaafar had appealed against the magistrate court’s decision to reject an application to throw out the charges of defamation she allegedly made against Siti.

Ahmad Shaharil, an English Communications lecturer, is charged with disseminating damaging e-mail about Siti Nurhaliza he allegedly received from Sharifah, to Utusan Malaysia entertainment journalist Ku Seman Ku Hussein.

He was accused of doing so with the intention of tarnishing Siti Nurhaliza’s reputation.

Ahmad was alleged to have committed the offence at 17, Jalan Ismail Cik Mat at 3.01am on Aug 16 last year.

He was also charged with sending libellous e-mails about the singer to:

* Harian Metro entertainment journalist Abdullah Mamat at Kolej Komuniti Bayan Baru in Jalan Ibbetson at 11.46pm on Aug 22; and

* New Straits Times entertainment journalist Faridul Anwar Farinordin at the same college at 5.25pm on Aug 24.

The Deputy Public Prosecutor is Azman Abu Hassan.

http://www.mmail.com.my/