Editor, journalist found guilty of libel

Opposition MP Marie Louise Coleiro was awarded Lm500 libel damages by Mr Justice Geoffrey Valenzia sitting in the First Hall of the Civil Court.

Ms Coleiro sued journalist Dione Borg and Joe Zahra as editor of the newspaper In-Nazzjon.

She claimed she had been libelled by an article, written by Mr Borg and published on the front page of the newspaper in August 2005 under the heading Ufficjali Laburisti jafu bl-istorja (Labour officials are aware of the story).

Ms Coleiro said in her writ the article in question had claimed there were celebrations both within the Malta Labour Party and within the Labour women's section after the elections for the party's executive committee.

The article also claimed there was a campaign within the MLP in favour of Alfred Sant and against Lino Spiteri, George Abela and others, including Ms Coleiro.

Both Ms Coleiro and the witnesses she produced denied that any celebrations had occurred and she added that the article as a whole was based upon an untruth.

She further claimed that the article was libellous as it portrayed her as having supported and celebrated with one section within the MLP against another section.

Mr Justice Valenzia noted there was nothing wrong with being active within a group in a political party but not in another.

However, the way in which the article was written implied that not only was Ms Coleiro involved in a group that sympathised with people like Dr Abela and Mr Spiteri but also that she was celebrating with a group of people within the MLP. The article claimed that one of these persons had mentioned that there was gerrymandering in the election of Dr Sant as party leader in 1992.

Ms Coleiro was portrayed in the article as being one of a group of persons who was working against MLP officials and the party leader when at the same time she occupied the post of president of the women section.

It was defamatory to impute disloyalty to a politician, the court ruled.

The judge therefore found in Ms Coleiro's favour and ordered the paper to pay her damages for a total of Lm500.