Kurt Farrugia, former One TV editor and now the government’s head of communications, has been ordered by a court to pay €2,000 in damages to former PBS Head of News Natalino Fenech.

In its decision the court found that comments made by  Mr Fenech’s had been deceitfully manipulated in a Labour Party political spot.

The case goes back to October 2012, when the Labour television station broadcast a political advert claiming that “GonziPN controlled the news and current affairs programmes on PBS”.

The spot included a clip taken from a documentary which PBS had produced to commemorate its 50 years. In it Mr Fenech, then head of PBS news, said that he wanted to introduce a new style of bulletins.

“People have the wrong impression that news must be balanced. There exists no balance in news,” Mr Fenech was quoted saying in the Labour spot.

In its decision the court presided by Magistrate Francesco Depasquale said that Mr Fenech's  comments needed to be taken in their original context.

In the documentary Mr Fenech had remarked that prior to his appointment, PBS news bulletins were more like a “notice board” of the day. He wanted to change this approach by not reporting government events which contained “nothing new”, the former news editor had said.

It was clear that Mr Fenech’s comments had been manipulated in deceitful manner by the Labour Party to show him in bad light, the court said.

It added that the point made by the former PBS head of news was that government events of no news value were not being covered.

This message is “diametrically opposed” to what the PL was saying in its political spots, the court noted.

On his part Mr Farrugia had argued that he should not be held responsible as his involvement was only to broadcast the PL’s political spot. However, the court noted that that the former One News editor was one of several persons who had used the social media to encouraged others to watch it.

In this respect it made reference to a Facebook post on Mr Farrugia’s personal account which read – Share the clip – keep making people aware who are the people at the top calling the shots at PBS.

Consequently the court found the former One News editor guilty and liquidated damages to Mr Fenech.

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