George Papagiorcopulo was yesterday awarded Lm800 libel damages by Mr Justice Raymond C. Pace in the first Hall of the Civil Court.

Papagiorcopulo filed his writ against Jimmy Magro and Mario Vella as representatives of Rainbow Productions Limited, which company was later substituted by One Productions Limited.

Papagiorcopulo claimed he had been libelled in a news bulletin broadcast on October 4, 1994 on Super One Television when an anonymous letter, allegedly sent to the police commissioner, was read out.

The letter alleged that while Papagiorcopulo was a Malta Investment Management Company Limited official he had committed a number of corrupt acts.

The letter also claimed that Papagiorcopulo had been found out by Minister John Dalli, but that everything was hushed up and that he was then transferred to Malta International Airport where he again committed acts of extortion and corruption.

Papagiorcopulo claimed that these allegations were unfounded and libellous in his regard and he requested the court to condemn defendants to pay him libel damages.

Mr Justice Pace noted that there was no doubt that Papagiorcopulo had been defamed, for while it was true that the news bulletin had stated that the Commission Against Corruption had received an anonymous letter, the news was broadcast in such a way that it could be interpreted as a proven fact by the viewer who could then believe it.

Furthermore, the television station had not carried out any verifications into the news item but had merely caused the letter to be read out.