Malaysian company files US$24 million lawsuit against veteran journalist P. Gunasegaram 

Jakarta, August 11, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB) and its executive vice-chairperson, Salim Fateh Din, to withdraw their excessive RM100 million (US$24.45 million) defamation lawsuit against veteran journalist P. Gunasegaram over an opinion piece on an urban rail project.

The lawsuit, filed in the Shah Alam High Court on July 29, stems from a July 3 post on Gunasegaram’s Facebook page that linked to an opinion piece he wrote for KINIBIZ, titled “LRT3 Shah Alam line welcome but questions on costs, delays remain,” according to the statement of claim reviewed by CPJ.

The claim said Gunasegaram’s article had implied that the company had “obtained the LRT3 Project through the practice of cronyism, political patronage and political connections,” and that these factors contributed to cost overruns and delays in the project’s implementation.

Gunasegaram, an independent journalist who co-founded KINIBIZ in 2013 and is published in outlets such as Malaysiakini, has defended the article as constituting fair comment on a matter of great public interest. He told CPJ that the column was based on facts drawn from public records and that the “public deserves a full explanation from the government on the costs and delays” associated with project.

“The massive civil defamation lawsuit against veteran journalist P. Gunasegaram is unreasonable and an attack on press freedom,” said CPJ’s Asia-Pacific Program Coordinator Kunal Majumder. “Companies involved in public projects must respect news commentary and should settle legitimate grievances through the Malaysia Media Council’s dispute resolution mechanism, rather than intimidating journalists through the courts.”

The plaintiffs are seeking damages for alleged reputational harm, as well as injunctions requiring Gunasegaram to remove the disputed material and barring him from publishing similar content, according to the claim and multiple news reports. He has refused to comply with the MRCB’s July 10 letter demanding he remove the article from his Facebook account and publish an apology.

MRCB did not reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment about the lawsuit.

CPJ has previously documented how excessive defamation claims are used to silence and intimidate critical journalists, including in Malaysia.

Such lawsuits, known as strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), can harass and intimidate journalists into silence by requiring them to make repeated court appearances and pay exorbitant legal fees.