To sustain their stand that serious and prudent investigative journalism requires protection, three judges, including the Chief Justice, yesterday overturned a judgement awarding damages to a former Cabinet minister.
The ruling was made by Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri, Mr Justice Albert J. Magri and Mr Justice Tonio Mallia following an appeal filed by former journalist Joe Mifsud who is today a lawyer.
The case refers to a press release, entitled “Se Nibqa’ Nghid il-Verità Akkost ta’ Kollox” (I’ll keep saying the truth at all costs), which Dr Mifsud had issued in April 1997.
In it, Dr Mifsud referred to journalistic work he had carried out in connection with his book Id-Djarju ta’ Ciro del Negro (The diary of Ciro del Negro), which spoke about drug trafficking and implicated people connected to politicians.
Louis Galea, a former Nationalist Cabinet minister and now Malta’s representative on the European Court of Auditors, deemed the contents of the press release libellous and sued Dr Mifsud.
The first court found in favour of Dr Galea and ordered Dr Mifsud to pay him damages amounting to €5,000.
On appeal, however, the court noted that Dr Mifsud had referred to the diaries of Mr Del Negro, which had been exhibited in court in legal proceedings in connection with drugs.
The diaries referred to a number of people, including Joe Galea (Dr Galea’s brother) and Norman Bezzina who, at the time, was employed in Dr Galea’s secretariat. Dr Mifsud had referred to this in his reports and had mentioned Dr Galea as being related to Joe Galea. However, Dr Mifsud had not alleged that Dr Galea was personally involved in drug trafficking.
This notwithstanding, Dr Galea had accused Dr Mifsud of character assassination. Dr Mifsud had retaliated by issuing the press release saying that Dr Galea ought to help uncover the truth.
Bearing this context of affairs in mind, the Court of Appeal ruled that the press release was not libellous.
As a person in public life, Dr Galea was expected to put up with far more criticism than a private person would. When one entered politics one should expect to be involved in investigations that could directly affect members of his family because any allegations against politicians had to be probed thoroughly.
Investigative journalism deserved full protection in a democratic society, provided that the journalism was serious and prudent. In such cases, even genuine errors could be tolerated.
The European Court of Human Rights had ruled that the public had the right to be informed about investigations involving political activities.
Lawyer Paul Lia appeared for Dr Mifsud.