The union-owned newspaper It-Torċa was yesterday ordered to pay more than €23,000 for publishing three libellous articles after losing five separate cases.
The award in damages came as Magistrate Francesco Depasquale delivered 11 libel judgments in one morning.
In one of these judgments, the Magistrate deemed one of the articles published by the paper “foul”, leading to the maximum payout of €11,650.
The case involved Wayne Lee Valentine, a Malta Information Technology Agency employee, who instituted the case against editor Aleks Farrugia.
The article, entitled The Missing Link In The Scandal of BWSC, published on March 14, 2010, alleged that Mr Valentine had leaked sensitive information to Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor, BWSC, the company granted the contract to the controversial power station extension.
Mr Valentine allegedly passed on the information to a colleague whose father-in-law was the BWSC agent in Malta.
Magistrate Depasquale said it appeared that Mr Farrugia relied on allegations made to him by sources that, when it mattered, could not prove their information.
It was also clear that Mr Farrugia made no distinction between fact and conjecture.
This behaviour undermined the respect the profession of journalism should enjoy and undermined the reputation of Mr Valentine, who ended up arrested and interrogated by police and was also investigated by the Public Accounts Committee, the magistrate said.
In two other cases, Mr Farrugia was ordered to pay a further €5,000 each to Environment Minister George Pullicino and former Nationalist MP Toni Abela over an article entitled From The Police Investigation About The Case Of David Agius... Pullicino, Abela Mentioned In Relation To Corruption.
The article, published on February 24, 2008, implied that both the minister and Mr Abela were involved in corruption.
Magistrate Depasquale took into consideration the fact that Mr Farrugia said he made it clear that these were just allegations being published, but the magistrate said this was unacceptable.
In another two cases, the newspaper was ordered to pay €1,000 and €500 in separate cases filed by Christian Scicluna and Sabrina Mulligan against former editor Alfred Briffa.
The article entitled Propaganda For Mater Dei... Production Houses Paid To Give Subtle Publicity published on June 24, 2007, alleged Ms Mulligan, a former partner of Mr Scicluna, who was at the time Mater Dei Hospital’s PR, acted as an intermediary between the production house and the hospital.
Meanwhile, in separate libel judgments, Magistrate Depasquale ruled against a complaint by then Family Minister Dolores Cristina in respect to former Labour Leader Alfred Sant.
Dr Sant in an article had claimed there was corruption in the minister’s private secretariat.
Though no corruption was found in the secretariat, the minister had eventually asked the police to investigate an official in her ministry.
In another case, Labour MEP candidate Sharon Ellul Bonici lost a libel suit filed against her Nationalist political rival Roberta Metsola over claims that she was in favour of abortion.
Magistrate Depasquale found the comments of Dr Metsola (then Metsola Tedesco Triccas) constituted fair comment and were not libellous.