Kuala Lampur, Aug. 20 -- Four decades as a journalist and I have become some kind of an expert on the matter of defamation, I think, even though I've never had the chance to read law, let alone practise it.

The newsroom is the best of gurus. And the courtroom, too, of course.

In 2007, barely six months after parting ways with the New Straits Times Press, I was dragged into what Google describes as a "historic defamation lawsuit that changed the media landscape in the country". It was the first time on Earth that a newspaper company was suing a blogger for defamation.

My legal battle would drag on for five years and made me the wiser - a defamation suit cannot kill press freedom; on the contrary, it provides the journalist an opportunit...