Court fines columnist €1,165

Columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia was fined €1,165 for libelling Labour Party deputy leader Anġlu Farrugia in an article a court defined as “militant journalism” aimed at damaging the politician’s reputation.

Magistrate Silvio Meli found that Mrs Caruana Galizia had timed the article to harm Dr Farrugia as she tried to depict him as a “power-hungry rogue” when he was contesting the 2003 party leadership election.

Ms Caruana Galizia said after judgment was pronounced she planned to appeal, adding she was willing to take the case before the Constitutional Court and the European Court if need be.

The case dates back to March 8, 2003, when Mrs Caruana Galizia wrote an article entitled The ‘Anything Goes’ Party, published on The Malta Independent.

Among other things, she said she was perplexed at how Dr Farrugia, a former police officer, had progressed so far within Labour and this showed lack of quality control within the party. She said that if Dr Farrugia ever became leader, the party would never be able to be a decent and respectable one.

Two months after the article was published, Dr Farrugia filed a formal complaint calling on the police to take criminal libel action against the columnist. He deemed the article defamatory and meant to cause him the maximum amount of damage.

Mrs Caruana Galizia insisted her article was not libelous because it was based on facts and fair comment about a public figure who was, therefore, open to public scrutiny.

The court pointed out that there was a fine line between freedom of expression and the right to safeguard one’s reputation. Journalists had “duties and responsibilities”. When writing on matters of public interest, journalists were to act in good faith in order to provide accurate and reliable information, the magistrate said, quoting case law.

The columnist, he ruled, had failed to prove the facts alleged against Dr Farrugia who was justified in feeling libelled.