BAM irked by report wants to sue sports editor

The Star sports editor Rajes Paul has run afoul with the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) over her commentary piece on the association’s state of affairs.

The BAM, it is learnt, has sent a demand notice to the writer for an article published by the leading English paper that it deems to have brought disrepute to the organisation.

BAM vice president and the president of the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Association (KLBA) Datuk Seri Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos has been engaged to initiate the legal action against Rajes.

Jahaberdeen is a senior lawyer who practices at Messrs Jahaberdeen & Co and founder of Rapera, a movement which encourages thinking and compassionate citizens.

Sports associations in Malaysia rarely bring legal actions against journalists and the BAM’s decision to do so especially considering The Star’s extensive coverage for badminton in the past, is a surprise.

The article that seems to have jangled the nerves of the top BAM officials was published on February 27, 2021 titled “Do we need SOP to prevent another kind of virus from weakening Malaysian sport?”

It is learnt that the initial fees for the legal suit is already a considerable sum. And if the legal action does go to the courts, the legal fees is also likely to go up, especially if it contested.

Ironically, this portal also raised similar issues in an article published on January 8, 2021 titled “To sell or not to sell”.

The BAM as non-government organisation could well have used other means to resolve the matter, including engaging the writer directly or even through the National Union of Journalist (NUJ) or the Sportswriters Association of Malaysia (SAM).

That the BAM is willing to fork out the large sum of money to start this legal action, when many other associations are struggling to run their basic affairs, may not look good on the BAM.

Rajes in her article did ask whether every sen the BAM had raised by selling their property at Taman Maluri, Cheras, for RM52mil will be put to good use.

She had also questioned whether there would be a clear SOP to show transparency? Maybe the BAM can start by showing how this legal action is being paid for by.

By taking the high road, the matter that hardly stirred much interest even in the social media when it was published, the issue has been aggravated.

Let’s just hope that clearer minds will prevail and the matter is resolved without resorting to legal actions and counter actions.

Perhaps the Sports Minister should step in to stop this being the new norm. Unless there was mala fide in the reporting, such pressures on journalists are only going to hamper the industry from airing fair commentaries.

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