The Court of Appeal yesterday confirmed an award of libel damages against journalist Glenn Bedingfield.

In October 2007 the First Hall of the Civil Court had found in favour of former government minister Louis Galea and had ruled that he had been libelled by Mr Bedingfield in a book entitled Il-Ħbieb tal-Ħbieb (friends of friends). The court ordered Mr Bedingfield to pay €5,825 in damages.

Mr Bedingfield then appealed to the Court of Appeal composed of Chief Justice Vincent De Gaetano, Mr Justice Albert J. Magri and Mr Justice Tonio Mallia.

On appeal the court noted that the book was based on extracts from the diary of a certain Ciro Del Negro in which he spoke of an agreement on drug trafficking which was reached in an office in Mosta used by former minister Lawrence Gatt among others.

Mr Bedingfield said in his book that among the people mentioned by Mr Del Negro in his diary were Dr Galea and his brother Joe.

The Court of Appeal declared that Mr Bedingfield had created a fantasy story from a note inserted by Mr Del Negro in his diary that he had seen or spoken to "Joe Galea fratello di Louis" (Joe Galea brother of Louis).

The reference to Dr Galea was, said the court, a point of reference to identify Joe Galea. Mr Bedingfield wished to implicate Dr Galea in a story of drug trafficking.

The court said Mr Bedingfield had deliberately implied that Dr Galea was involved with Mr Del Negro and with the persons mentioned by him.

Libel could exist even through innuendo, said the court.

In conclusion the Court of Appeal confirmed the libel judgment and the award of damages.

In a statement yesterday, the Nationalist Party said the decision against Mr Bedingfield, now head of news within Labour's media machine, was clear proof of their mud-slinging strategy.