Video: Haris Ibrahim’s views on Sedition law
Posted on May 9, 2008
Filed Under sedition | 2 Comments
A friend sent me this link of a short video of Haris Ibrahim speaking in a forum on sedition laws. Click this link to YouTube.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Sphere: Related ContentLayman’s guide to Defamation
Posted on May 7, 2008
Filed Under defamation | 3 Comments
Defamation in a layman’s term means the damaging of someone’s good reputation by saying something bad and untrue about them. In law, defamation is saying or writing something about a person which is untrue and the thing said or written has lowered his/her reputation in the eyes of right thinking members of society.
There are 2 types of defamation: Libel – which in general is written and Slander – which in general is oral. Both exist to protect a person’s reputation.
To prove libel, one need not prove loss or damage; it is enough to show that the words were published and untrue. Slanderous statements, on the other hand, are actionable only if they can be proved to cause special damage subject to the following exceptions:
- Words spoken and published which impute unchastity or adultery to any woman or girl shall not require special damage to render them actionable. Likewise, to impute that a person has a contagious venereal disease is to commit a slander actionable per se. (s.4 of the Act)
- It shall not be necessary to prove special damage in the case of slander affecting official, professional or business reputation. For instance, to say that a businessman is bankrupt is defamatory and is actionable per se. (s.5 of the Act)
The Defamation Act defines “words” to includes pictures, visual images, gestures and other methods of signifying meaning. In being cast inclusively, the term includes but is not limited to words for it encompasses non-verbal methods of communicating meaning: Datuk Syed Kechik bin Syed Mohamed v Datuk Yeh Pao Tzu & Ors [1977] 1 MLJ 56 (cartoons and caricatures held to be defamatory); Monson v Tussauds [1894] 1 QB 671 (waxworks of the plaintiff in ‘Chamber of Horrors’ held to be defamatory).
What are the causes of action open to a claimant who was injured by certain defamatory statements made against him?
- Suing for defamation
- Criminal defamation
Civil Suit:
What needs to be proved in a suit for defamation?
- That the statement was defamatory
A defamatory statement is one which discredits the claimant by lowering his reputation in the estimation of right thinking members of society
- That the statement referred to the claimant
The claimant must prove that the statement expressly or impliedly refers to him. In other words, he was identified as the subject of the statement.
- That the statement was published
Publication in this context means that the statement was made or shown to a third party by the defendant.
To be continued: – Defenses to Defamation
Popularity: 25% [?]
Sphere: Related ContentAre permits required for religious use?
Posted on February 19, 2008
Filed Under local government | 6 Comments
Taking the cue from Lulu’s blog that Lulu’s VERY Concerned For The Churches In Subang Jaya, where it was revealed that churches operating out of shop houses need to apply for an annual licence from the local council.
Therein, a question was raised – “I would like to know under what law that a church has to apply for a permit? And does a surau or masjid needs to apply for one too?”
I did a quick check and this is the brief answer.
1. Surau / masjid does not need a permit as they are usually built on land gazetted by the state as religious land. It is the same with churches built on religious land.
2. As for this “new licence -
The local govt can issue bye-laws to regulate a matter they are empowered to by the Local Govt Act 1976.
s.102 where it list out all the matters the local government can regulate. The local council cannot regulate or demand licence for that which they are not empowered by this Act.
Section 102. General power to make by-laws.
In addition to the powers of making by-laws expressly or impliedly conferred upon it by any other power to provisions of this Act every local authority may from time to time make, amend and revoke by-laws in respect of all such matters as are necessary or desirable for the maintenance of the health, safety and well-being of the inhabitants or for the good order and government of the local authority area and in particular in respect of all or any of the following purposes:
(a) to regulate the form in which all estimates, budgets, statements, returns, or other accounts of the local authority shall be drawn up and kept;
(b) to regulate the repairing, cleaning, watering and lighting of streets, roads, canals and bridges;
(c) to regulate, license, restrict, prevent or remove the exhibition of advertisements;
(d) to regulate the planting, preservation and removal of trees, flowers and shrubs in public places;
(e) to provide for the protection from damage or interference of any local authority works or property situated or being in, under or over any public or private place within the local authority area;
(f) to provide for the establishment, regulation and management of any public park, walk, recreation and pleasure ground, garden, swimming pool, lake, stadium, historical building or site, public library, art gallery, museum, public theatre, restaurant, hall, assembly room, botanical or zoological garden or aquarium;
(g) to regulate within the local authority area the landing and temporary storage of goods upon public quays, wharves and streets, adjacent to any port, or any waterway connected therewith, and to fix the fees to be charged in respect of such temporary storage;
(h) to regulate any public sales held in any public place;
(i) to define the streets or areas within which shops, warehouses, factories or business premises may not be erected, or within which specified trades, businesses or callings may not be established or carried on;
(j) to regulate, license, supervise, restrict or prohibit the playing of musical instruments, singing or performing for profit, in any public place;
(k) to regulate the maintenance, distribution and use of any artificial light, gas or other energy that is supplied by the local authority;
(l) to provide for the establishment, maintenance, regulation and control of public transport services and to prescribe fares to be charged;
(m) to regulate fire brigades and to provide for the conditions of service, administration and discipline of all members thereof;
(n) (i) to regulate, supervise and license trishaws and carts and to prescribe the rates or fares, whether by distance or time within or without the local authority area to be charged for such services, the number of passengers and the weights, dimensions, and nature of the loads to be carried and the mode of construction thereof;
(ii) to prescribe standards of medical and physical fitness and efficiency for the riders, drivers or haulers of trishaws or carts, as the case may be;
(o) to provide for the licensing of bicycles and tricycles;
(p) to provide for the establishment, regulation, inspection and licensing of places of entertainment, public recreation or public resort, and to make regulations governing the means of ingress to and egress from such places and for providing adequate parking space adjacent or in reasonable proximity thereto;
(q) to prohibit, restrict or regulate the transportation and quarrying of stone, lime, clay, sand or other material on any premises and the burning of lime and manufacture of bricks;
(r) to prohibit, restrict or regulate the use of any land as a pond for the keeping or breeding of fish;
(s) to control and supervise, by registration, licensing or otherwise, including in proper cases by prohibition, a trade, business or industry which is of an obnoxious nature or which could be a source of nuisance to the public or a class of the public;
(t) to provide for the offences under this Act and any by-laws which may be compounded by the local authority, the persons who may compound, the limit of the sum of money to be collected by such local authority for compounding such offences and the procedure and forms to be complied with in compounding; and
(u) in so far as they do not fall within any of the preceding paragraphs, to provide for all procedural and other matters which by this Act are required or permitted to be prescribed, or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the provisions of this Act.
As far as I read this, there is no provision to regulate places of worship/ church in this s.102. If anything, one would need to use 102(p) and argue that church is a place of entertainment, public recreation or public resort or a business, trade or industry that is a nuisance to a class of public in 102(s). Some councilor might claim that singing and dancing in church to be a recreation. Or that church music can be a deemed nuisance to some people.
A reasonable person would not use these 2 subsection as a basis for the creation of a bye-law to regulate churches in shop-houses. But then again, do we have reasonable people in the local government?
That said, there are many churches who are registered as either a business or a society who are using shop lots for their activities.
If it is registered as a business, then they would need a business licence not the new licence. If it is registered as a society, then they need to comply with the Societies Act and not this new licence.
So i really dont know where our MP got this idea from.
Popularity: 22% [?]
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