The editor of In-Nazzjon was yesterday fined Lm100 after a magistrate ruled that a caricature depicting Labour Party leader Alfred Sant as Adolf Hitler, on a podium hung with a swastika, was defamatory.

"Although, being a politician, Dr Sant was prone to a certain amount of criticism, and even ridicule, comparing him with a person of such abhorrence as Hitler was intolerable and such a comparison should never be used by the media to ridicule someone," Magistrate Michael Mallia said.

The magistrate added that a test of whether the caricature could be held to be defamatory was the message that would be received by the ordinary reader of the newspaper.

In this case, there was no doubt that at first impression the caricature identified Dr Sant with Hitler, a person associated with war, cruelty and atrocities committed in the name of Nazism.

The magistrate ruled that the caricature, captioned "Alfred Sant: Jien biss... Jien biss... Jien biss", published in In-Nazzjon on June 20, 2001, was defamatory and he fined editor Joe Mikallef Lm100.