Nasi kandar restaurant drops defamation suit against paper

September 15, 2023

Nasi kandar restaurant drops defamation suit against paper

GEORGE TOWN: A nasi kandar restaurant has dropped a defamation suit against The Star newspaper after an out-of-court settlement.

Nasi Kandar Line Clear had filed a suit against the daily in the High Court here following a report the restaurant was fined for cross-contamination and improper food handling in February 2020.

The case had been fixed for a full trial for Sept 11 to 14.

However, the restaurant that was fined by Penang Island City Council health officers was Nasi Kandar Clear, located at Jalan Gurdwara, while Line Clear is at Penang Road. Both restaurants are not related.

Nasi Kandar Line Clear’s lawyer, K Simon Murali, said both the restaurant and The Star have reached an “amicable, full, and final settlement”, and the terms cannot be disclosed.

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“Upon compliance with the agreed terms by both sides, the plaintiff has withdrawn the suit with no order as to costs,” he said.

The Star had said the article was not defamatory, but admitted to having published it in its print edition on Feb 21, 2020, carrying the headline “Famous Penang eateries fined”, with “Deens Maju and Line Clear Nasi Kandar outlets ordered to close” as a subheading.

The restaurant claimed the article had caused it to suffer losses, along with humiliation for being “unclean and unhygienic”.

In its statement of defence, The Star’s publisher, Star Media Group, said the online version of the article was immediately amended to remove references to Line Clear.
In response to the defence, Line Clear claimed The Star did not admit it had made a mistake in the first place and had failed to address the restaurant’s grievances from the misreporting.