Media Law & Reputation Management

Recognition 

The firm has been ranked in Tier 1 for our media law practice among Malaysian law firms every year since 2016 by Media Law International, which stated that the firm “leads the market”. This publication is the exclusive guide to leading media law firms around the world, providing comprehensive coverage of firms and practitioners with media law expertise, across 56 jurisdictions.

Services

Warren Buffett famously said “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it”. 

Our firm has always prioritised the protection of our clients’ reputations whilst balancing this with the importance of freedom of expression. Our experience in dealing with media-related cases allows us to give our clients a realistic assessment of their case so that decisions can be made swiftly and confidently. We also value the need to balance journalistic and artistic expression with any potential exposure to lawsuits. 

Our lawyers have been involved in numerous defamation cases in Malaysia and have acted for prominent individuals and renowned publications in various media-law related suits. We provide advice and court representation in matters involving libel and slander, malicious falsehood and contempt of court. Our work encompasses traditional media, online publications, social media platforms and radio/television broadcastings.

We have conducted cases involving both print media as well as internet media. As a matter of fact, we acted in one of the first few reported internet defamation actions in Malaysia, whereby we successfully obtained a court order for disclosure of the identities of the wrongdoers. In 2015 – 2017, we successfully acted for The Edge Media Group against the Minister of Home Affairs in an application for judicial review arising from our client’s publication of articles on the 1MDB scandal. This was a matter of wide-scale public interest. 

Our experience in dealing with disputes has enabled the team to support clients in their management of incidents and predicaments involving their reputation, including, but not limited to, drafting press statements and internal circulars and strategising media approaches to take into account possible litigation ramifications. Working together with our clients to refine their responses in crisis management, our aim is to help them protect their corporate brand and reputation and to maintain successful relationships.

In the light of the fact that much of everyday life is impacted by online media, many clients require advice on their rights and obligations under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. Our media practice group has the benefit of support from our Technology, Multimedia & Telecommunications team which helps provide advice on, inter alia, social networking sites, online advertising and content, website terms and conditions, contracts in a digital environment, artificial intelligence, e-commerce and so on.