Magistrate dismisses libel suit

Magistrate Michael Mallia has dismissed a libel suit filed by Agricultural Co-Operative Ltd against Peter Axisa.

The company had claimed it had been libelled by a declaration made by Axisa as reported in an article entitled Farmers To Meet Tomorrow On Potato Controversy published in The Malta Independent on September 8, 2001, in an article entitled The Potato Debate, published in the same newspaper on September 10, 2001 and another article entitled Ghadd ta' Bdiewa Mhassba (Some Farmers Are Worried) published in l-orizzont on the same date.

Axisa pleaded that the company could not be libelled at law as it enjoyed juridical personality.

In its judgment the court noted that in terms of law only a private individual could claim to have been defamed for the purpose of the law was to protect the honour and reputation of an individual who was entitled to be protected from abuse.

An abstract or juridical entity did not have honour to protect.

After listing a number of judgments by Maltese and foreign courts on this matter, the court concluded that the action for moral damages as contemplated in the Press Act was applicable only to the offended party and not to a juridical company or abstract entity.

If the persons forming part of a company or cooperative felt defamed they were entitled to file action for damages but this right was not available to the abstract entity.

The court therefore upheld Axisa's plea and dismissed the action.