TVM news had done “nothing wrong” in its reportage of a rape trial which was meant to start today, head of news Reno Bugeja told the Times of Malta.

“I don’t believe we broke any ethical standards or indeed prejudiced today’s case," Mr Bugeja said. 

The trial by jury regarding the case of a father accused of raping his daughter was supposed to start this morning but was postponed following an appeal filed before the Constitutional Court.

The court ruled that reports in the media may have prejudiced the proceedings.
The name of the accused has been withheld and the media ordered not to publish it to protect the daughter’s identity.

In a letter sent to Mr Bugeja Judge Edwina Grima, who decided to suspend the trial by jury, was critical of TVM for revealing details of the case. She also said that certain details were not supposed to be published in the media as it would prejudice the case.

Asked about this Mr Bugeja stood by the reportage saying everything reported had been taken from the public domain.

“The information we used was from a court judgement in February 2015,” he said.
The veteran journalist added that TVM news was discussing the matter with its in-house legal counsel.