Libel suit dismissed

Magistrate Michael Mallia yesterday dismissed a libel suit filed by lawyer Luciano Busuttil against the head of Net News and executive editor of Net TV.

Dr Busuttil claimed that he had been libelled in the course of a news bulletin broadcast on Net TV in August 2005. He requested the court to order Mario Xuereb, the head of Net News, and Louiselle Vassallo, as executive editor of Net TV to pay him libel damages.

But the court found that Dr Busuttil had failed to prove that Mr Xuereb and Ms Vassallo were responsible for the broadcast.

The court added that although Dr Busuttil was complaining of the broadcast, he had referred, in his evidence, to an article written by Joe Micallef and Keith Demicoli and published in Il-Mument on August 7, 2005. Neither Mr Micallef nor Mr Demicoli were parties to this libel suit.

According to Dr Busuttil, the article reflected the contents of the broadcast, but the court found that the court case did not refer to the article but to the broadcast.