The majority of the cases, 60 per cent, were filed against journalists.

Politicians filed a record number of criminal libel suits last year, just as the two big parties pledged to look into reviewing the law, an exercise carried out by the Times of Malta found.

The 36 cases filed by MPs, unelected politicians and other political functionaries made up 70 per cent of all criminal libel proceedings opened in 2014. This was about 20 per cent more than the usual number of libel suits filed by politicians.

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici told this newspaper that he was reviewing the laws under which libel could be considered a criminal offence. Ironically, Dr Bonnici was among those who instituted criminal libel proceedings against a journalist last year, when a parliamentary committee began looking into possible amendments to the law, without having put forward any specific changes.

Two other Cabinet ministers – Konrad Mizzi and Leo Brincat – filed five criminal libel cases between them last year.

Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil initiated four libel suits and the PN’s foreign affairs spokesman, Tonio Fenech, filed two.

The majority of the cases, 60 per cent, were filed against journalists, the rest against politicians.

A broader review of the criminal libel cases submitted over the past eight years shows that, on average, 60 per cent were filed against journalists. A total 316 cases were filed, just over half of them by politicians, political functionaries or political appointees.

While 59 of the cases originated from the Labour camp, 85 came from the PN.

The rest were filed by entrepreneurs, many of whom have close ties to politics. Only a small portion, less than 10 per cent, were initiated by ordinary civilians. About two-fifths came from unions and organisations such as the hunting lobby. Some organisations, such as the Malta Football Referees Association, also filed a few cases. The MFRA took exception to one of its members being called a figolla by a television commentator during a football match in 2010.

In terms of timing, it seems politicians are more inclined to act when an election is approaching. In fact, the highest number of cases filed by Nationalist politicians, 36, were submitted in the run-up to the fiercely contested 2008 election.

Labour Party politicians meanwhile, filed their highest number of cases, 20, last year, with the majority, 13, in the weeks leading to the MEP and local council elections in March.

Civil vs criminal libel

There are two types of libel suits: civil and criminal.

In civil cases, two parties thrash things out against one another. The complainant will be in pursuit of monetary damages to a maximum of about €11,000.

Criminal proceedings, on the other hand, see the defendant face the police in a court of law, with the maximum penalty being a €1,000 fine and/or up to a year in prison.

The complainant, however, does not receive any monetary compensation in criminal cases. Because of this, many of those filing criminal cases also initiate civil proceedings in the hope of winning some form of compensation.

Earlier this year, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said there were about 185 pending civil and criminal libel cases, some dating back to the 1990s.