Blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia has been ordered to pay €3,000 in compensation to former journalist Julia Farrugia after being convicted of libel.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquele said in a decision delivered this morning that statements repeatedly made by Ms Caruana Galizia and reader comments on her blog included insinuations which did not constitute fair comment.

The court said Ms Caruana Galizia had made several insinuations against Ms Farrugia, describing her as a 'cow' and a 'bitch'  and insinuating that she was a prostitute who took off her clothes in public.

She had also persisted in describing Ms Farrugia as the daughter of Karmenu Farrugia, who had been indicated by a court witness as the person responsible for the political killing of Raymond Caruana, when Ms Farrugia was still a young girl. Ms Caruana Galizia then made analogies between Ms Farrugia and her father, alleging that "at least she's not going to use a submachine gun on me (I hope)."

The court rejected defence arguments that Ms Caruana Galizia was not responsible for comments submitted by readers, given that she had the facility to remove comments but were not until the case was filed.

The court also observed that the remarks in the blog had been made 16 times until the libel case was instituted.