Former coop president ordered to pay libel damages

A former president of the Agriculture Cooperative Limited was yesterday condemned to pay the coop Lm600 libel damages over comments he made at a meeting which were reported in l-orizzont and The Malta Independent.

Magistrate Silvio Meli ordered Peter Axisa to pay damages after the coop claimed libel over two articles entitled "Farmers to meet tomorrow on potato controversy" and "The potato debate" published by The Malta Independent on September 8 and 10, 2001 and an article entitled Ghadd ta' bdiewa mhassba published in l-orizzont on September 10, 2001.

Axisa claimed the coop's decision to impose a levy of two cents per sack of potatoes was supported by the prime minister and the agriculture minister. He had decided to resign as president of the coop due to its lack of interest and the coop had hindered his work.

The coop claimed Axisa's statements were incorrect and libellous in its regard.

But Axisa pleaded he was not responsible for the publication and that his verbal statements did not qualify as a publication or a broadcast in terms of the Press Act.

He further pleaded that the articles did not constitute a faithful report of his comments, and that his verbal declarations constituted fair comment.

The court yesterday noted that The Malta Independent journalist who wrote the articles had attended the meeting at which Axisa had made his comments, and had published a faithful report of what Axisa had said.

Although Axisa had testified that he thought that the articles were not a correct reproduction of his speech this had not been proven, and Axisa had not taken any action to effect a correction of the articles.

Consequently, Axisa had to bear the responsibility for the comments he had made.

The court concluded that the articles were defamatory in the coop's regard because it had been portrayed as being incompetent and as not working in the interests of its shareholders.