(Adds PN statement)
An award of libel damages against journalist Glenn Bedingfield has been confirmed by the Court of Appeal.
The First Hall of the Civil Court had, in October 2007, found in favour of former minister Louis Galea and had ruled that he had been libelled by Mr Bedingfield in a book entitled Il-Hbieb tal-Hbieb. The court ordered Mr Bedingfield to pay Lm2,500 in damages.
On appeal, the court noted that the book was based on extracts from the diary of a certain Ciro Del Negro in which he spoke of an agreement on drug trafficking which was reached in an office in Mosta, used by former minister Lawrence Gatt, among others.
Mr Bedingfield said in his book that among the people mentioned by Mr Del Negro in his diary were Dr Galea and his brother Joe.
The Court of Appeal said Mr Bedingfield had created a fantasy story from a note inserted by Mr Del Negro in his diary that he had seen or spoken to "Joe Galea fratello di Louis".
The reference to Dr Galea was, the court said, a point of reference to identify Joe Galea. But Mr Bedingfield wished to implicate Dr Galea in a story of drug trafficking and had deliberately implied that Dr Galea was involved with Mr Del Negro and others.
Libel could exist even through innuendo, the court ruled.
PN STATEMENT
In a statement, the Nationalist Party said that Labour’s strategy wasto hit at its political adversaries, create fictitious stories, trying to tarnish their reputation.
"This is a sad way of doing politics and it is not the first time that Labour and its media have been found guilty of fictitious, libellious stories against their adversaries," it said.
The PN added that this strategy puts off many people, especially the young, from taking an active part in politics at party level. It was a a strategy intended to libel politicians as ‘dirty’ and ‘corrupt’.
"Unfortunately, Labour persists with this strategy and to make matters worse Glenn Bedigfield today occupies the post of head of news of the Labour Party media, appointed by Labour Leader Joseph Muscat, an ex-colleague of Mr Bedingfield in the Labour Party newsroom," the PN said
The country deserved better, the party said.