Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera has filed a police report to "protect her integrity" from allegations levelled against her by columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The magistrate also abstained from presiding over two unrelated libel hearings involving Ms Caruana Galizia, one of which was scheduled for next week.

In a series of blog entries last week, Ms Caruana Galizia criticised the magistrate, arguing that her behaviour was inappropriate for someone in her position.

Ms Caruana Galizia also said she was "petitioning the Chief Justice" to get the magistrate off the libel cases in question.

One of them was instituted by the head of the defunct Alleanza Nazzjonali Repubblikana, Martin Degiorgio, against Ms Caruana Galizia and the other was by the columnist against the editor of Labour's online portal Maltastar.

The magistrate yesterday issued a decree informing the parties involved she was abstaining from presiding over the cases and that she had filed a police report due to what Ms Caruana Galizia wrote about her.

Dr Scerri Herrera's office refused to give out the court decree or to make any public comments, so it is still unclear what she has asked the police to investigate.

The police would not give such information either, saying it was "unethical" to do so.

However, legal experts said Ms Caruana Galizia's blog entries could be considered a criminal offence unrelated to libel.

They quoted article 93 of the Criminal Code which talks about "reviling a public official" to "intimidate or unlawfully influence them in the exercise of their functions".

This would make Ms Caruana Galizia liable to imprisonment of between one and three months or a fine if found guilty. The penalty could be aggravated if, for instance, "the object of the vilification is that of damaging or diminishing the reputation of the person against whom it is directed".

When contacted, the Ministry of Justice said Ms Caruana Galizia's allegations were being viewed "with the utmost seriousness" but it did not have the power to take any action because the competent institutions were independent of the government.