A magistrate today threw out a libel case filed by Vince Farrugia, former director-general of the GRTU, against  l-orizzont.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale ruled that an editorial carried by the daily newspaper in April 2012 which questioned why developer Sandro Chetcuti had been charged with Mr Farrugia's attempted murder when the police did not have evidence on this, was not libelous.

In his editorial, titled "L-isfaxxar ta’ frame-up” (the unravelling of a frame-up), editor Josef Caruana had written that the case “had all the ingredients of a clear frame-up” and that, as time went by, “it was becoming crystal clear that there was a covert agreement...to inflate the incident from a punch delivered in the heat of the moment and after provocation, to an ‘attempted homicide".

The editorial also alleged that there was a drive to create “a storm in a teacup,” driven by Mr Farrugia’s insistence with the media to depict him as the victim.

Mr Farrugia filed the libel suit, claiming that the editorial was a fairy tale and described it as the worst example of journalism.

However, Magistrate Depasquale said the editorial had been entirely based on evidence heard in court during the criminal case against Mr Chetcuti. He said the editorial was based on the retraction of the attempted murder charge by the police and the Attorney General.

The magistrate judged the editorial as justified and based on established facts which had been confirmed in court.

“The editorial was a comment on factually correct events which were performed by a public person and constituted permissible comment in a democratic society, where freedom of expression is in force and protected by the courts”, the magistrate said as he ruled that the editorial in question was not defamatory.