Finance Minister John Dalli has been awarded Lm70 damages after a Magistrates' Court found he had been libelled by an article published in the newspaper KullHadd last December.

The minister filed his writ against Felix Agius, the newspaper's editor, claiming he had been libelled by an article published on December 22, 2002.

Mr Agius pleaded that the article consisted of a report on matters of public interest and, furthermore, the article constituted fair comment.

Magistrate Silvio Meli noted in his judgment that the article had alleged that it was the minister's decision not to issue pay cheques for employees in the public sector before Christmas. However, the minister had testified that this was totally incorrect for it was public sector employees who had proposed a change to their salary payments. It was only at the minister's insistence that the pay cheques had been issued in the normal manner.

The court concluded that the article was libellous and ordered Agius to pay the minister Lm70 damages.

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