Updated 5.15pm

A newspaper article, a tweet and a Facebook post generated five libel suits and a total of €12,000 in damages to be forked out by a local newspaper and a Labour parliamentarian mainly in favour of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s heirs.

The assassinated journalist, her husband and his law firm partner Andrew Borg Cardona had filed two separate suits against Labour newspaper Kullħadd over an article published on August 3, 2014 entitled ‘€2.5 million in contracts’ wherein it was claimed that Evolve Ltd., having BCGL Services among its shareholders, had benefited from government contracts under a Nationalist administration.

The directors of BCGL Services, Peter Caruana Galizia and Dr Borg Cardona, proved in court that they had only received some €5,000 for a nominee shareholding, a far cry from the €80,000 alleged by the writer of the article.

Three other libel suits were filed against then Labour candidate (now Parliamentary Secretary) Aaron Farrugia who had tweeted and posted a comment on Facebook about the story published in Kullħadd.

On Thursday morning, in a crowded courtroom, magistrate Francesco Depasquale delivered judgment in all five suits, sending out a strong message against the current use of social media which was proving to be more of “a tool for misinformation” in the hands of those intent on causing more harm than good to society.

Magistrate Depasquale observed that in the light of such a reality, ordinary readers deserved to be told the whole truth rather than half-truths which explained why “serious investigative journalism” acquired greater significance in society.

The sincerity and honesty so necessary in journalism “were completely missing in this case,” the magistrate continued, with reference to the article published by Kullħadd.

Quoting from a speech once delivered by the late author and philosopher Umberto Eco, magistrate Depasquale observed that social media replaced the past ambience of a bar where “imbeciles” would be immediately silenced when speaking out after a glass of wine. By means of social media, society was experiencing “an invasion by imbeciles”.

Declaring all five writings as defamatory, the court ordered Aleander Balzan, replacing now Mr Justice Toni Abela as editor of Kullħadd, to pay €6,000 in damages. Dr  Farrugia was likewise ordered to pay another €6,000 by way of libel damages.

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