Editor fined over right of reply

The editor of The Sunday Times was this morning fined €1,164 after he was found guilty of breaching provisions in the Press Act regarding the right of reply.

Nationalist MP Franco Debono filed a complaint to the police about a paragraph in the weekly Roamers Column, published on January 3.

The paragraph reads:

“Most have had their tuppence worth and then some more about the Woes and Noes and Yesses of Debono. Opinions have been tossed around like pancakes. The man is afraid of Speaker Louis Galea returning to the Front Bench. The man wants to be promoted to a ministerial post. Same man wishes to forge a name for himself in the eyes of his constituents; wants backbenchers to be given the dignity they deserve; wants a larger share in decision-making; enjoys the limelight this has given him; the discomfiture he has created; enjoys the idea of being a loose cannon; and so on and so on ad quasi infinitum.”

The Sunday Times will be appealing the decision.