The appeals court threw out a magistrate’s assertion that Times of Malta journalist Ariadne Massa had colluded with health authorities when writing about a public hospital scam.
While retaining that the article, titled ‘Patients Swindled In Scam: Top MUMN Official Investigated’, was libellous because it wrongly implicated the four members of the nurses’ union executive, it said the reference to collusion was “gratuitous”.
In the first judgment, Magistrate Francesco Depasquale had ruled the court “could almost” conclude Ms Massa had colluded with the health ministry when writing the article.
He ascribed ill-fate to the journalist since at the time the story was published on August 22, 2010, the MUMN was locked in an industrial dispute with the government. But the appeals court rejected what it described as the magistrate’s “gratuitous” comments, which were the motivation for awarding the four MUMN officials €11,500 in damages.
The appeals court reduced the damages payable by Ms Massa and Times of Malta editor-in-chief Steve Mallia to €4,000 in total.
Times of Malta yesterday said it was considering all legal options in the wake of the appeals court decision.
The appeals court ruled the facts of the story were correct. It also said the story was an investigative piece and the journalist had a duty to inform the public of the facts.
But it ruled the words used in the sub-heading, referring to “top MUMN official” could have been interpreted by any right thinking individual as referring to the organisation’s executive when they were not in any way involved. In court the journalist argued the story was not referring to any of the four executive officials and the sub-heading did not identify any of them.
MUMN officials Paul Pace, Colin Galea, George Saliba and Maria Cutajar filed libel proceedings, claiming the story defamed them.
The article reported that a nurse and a salesman had swindled vulnerable patients out of hundreds of euros by offering therapy not provided by the State and leading them to believe it was free.
The story further amplified that the nurse involved was “employed in a managerial position at Mater Dei Hospital and occupied a top post” within the MUMN structures – but did not name the individual concerned even though the newspaper was aware of his identity.
The nurse implicated in the scam was the chairman of a sub-committee of the nurses’ union.