Evarist Bartolo fined €5k for libellous comments about former top official

Former Education Minister Evarist Bartolo has been ordered to pay €5,000 in libel damages to a former top official at the EU funds agency. 

A court ruled that Bartolo defamed Doreen Camilleri, the former national coordinator of the EUPA, in comments made to The Malta Independent in February 2016 following her dismissal during her probationary period.

In the original article, Bartolo stated that Camilleri’s removal was "in the interest of good governance" and suggested that "legal issues" were involved. Magistrate Victor Axiak found that an ordinary reader would interpret these comments as attributing serious misconduct or impropriety to Camilleri, rather than simple inefficiency.

Camilleri testified that she was not told why she was terminated and accused Bartolo of making comments intended to tarnish her reputation. 

Bartolo’s defence rested on the claim that his statements were "substantially true," citing an internal audit and a ministry fact-finding board.

However, the court rejected this. Financial shortcomings mentioned in the audit, including a €200,000 debt, predated Camilleri’s appointment. The evidence showed that Camilleri had actually been the one to flag these issues and push for management accounts to address them.

The court was also highly critical of the ministry’s fact-finding board. It kept no minutes of its meetings, conducted no forensic analysis of documents, and relied entirely on the testimonies of employees, the court said of the board. Furthermore, Camilleri was never given the opportunity to contest the allegations or see the final report until she fought for it through the Data Protection Commissioner years later.

While the court acknowledged reports from employees describing Camilleri’s leadership style as "dictatorial" or "aggressive," it ruled that a difficult management style does not justify a public claim of "good governance" failures.

The magistrate noted that while Camilleri's personality might have been grounds for termination during probation, it did not prove the serious misconduct Bartolo implied.

Claims regarding a conflict of interest were also dismissed. The court found that Camilleri had exercised "great caution" by proactively informing the ministry's permanent secretary and European Commission of a potential conflict, a move that the Commission itself had noted with satisfaction.

Camilleri's only fault in that regard was in not telling her direct superiors and the National Authority that she had informed the European Commission of the potential conflict, the court said.

The judgment concluded that Bartolo failed to prove his allegations were true. Despite taking nine years to reach a conclusion - due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, in part due to delays in receiving a magisterial inquiry and in part due to the sheer volume of evidence produced - the court found the comments libellous and ordered the €5,000 payment.