NET Television has been ordered  to pay Lm600 in libel damages to Architect Lawrence Mintoff after a court found that Mr Mintoff had been libelled in the course of a news bulletin of November 1998.  

Mr Mintoff filed his writ for damages against Dr Roger Degiorgio as the editor of NET TV and against Roderick Agius, a journalist with the TV station.  According to Mr Mintoff a report carried in the news bulletin was libellous in his regard.    The report, said Mr Mintoff, clearly implied that Mr Mintoff, a labour candidate,  had been awarded the contract to design the new hospital at Tal-Qroqq by a Labour government at a price that was higher  than the cheapest offer. 

The news bulletin, Mr Mintoff said, carried a film of him entering the Labour Party's headquarters.   According to Mr Mintoff the allegations carried in the report were false and aimed at damaging his professional activities.   Both Mr Degiorgio and Mr Agius pleaded that the report as not libellous as it constituted fair comment.

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