Sant awarded Lm700 libel damages

Opposition leader Alfred Sant has been awarded Lm700 libel damages over the publication of a caricature in in-Nazzjon in June 2001 depicting Sant as Adolf Hitler on a podium hung with a swastika.

An appeal court yesterday confirmed a Magistrates' Court judgment condemning (acting) editor Joe Mikallef to pay Dr Sant damages.

Mr Justice Philip Sciberras heard Mikallef's appeal from the judgment of the suit filed by Dr Sant who claimed the caricature, captioned "Alfred Sant: Jien biss... Jien biss... Jien biss", was deeply offensive. The Magistrates' Court had found in Dr Sant's favour.

Mr Justice Philip Sciberras yesterday pointed out that the test of whether the caricature could be held to be libellous was the message that would be received by the ordinary reader of the newspaper.

The court was not to consider the intention of the person who penned the drawing but what the ordinary reader would understand by it.

When one examined the caricature from this point of view, the judgment of the first court could not be condemned.