Libel judgment confirmed

The Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday confirmed a judgment of the Magistrates' Court in which Joe Mikallef was fined Lm100 for defaming Opposition Leader Alfred Sant.

The Magistrates' Court had found that a caricature published on June 20, 2001 in In-Nazzjon and captioned Alfred Sant: Jien Biss...Jien Biss...Jien Biss was defamatory to Dr Sant and had condemned Mikallef to pay Lm100 in damages. Mikallef had appealed.

In yesterday's judgment, Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono noted that one of the grounds for Mikallef's appeal was that the Magistrates' Court had failed to take into consideration that the caricature was always linked to the theme of that issue's editorial.

However, the court upheld the conclusions reached by the Magistrates' Court and noted that it was common knowledge that the average reader of any newspaper did not always read all the paper but only what was of particular interest to him.

It therefore followed that no editor could take it for granted that the ordinary reader would read the editorial and then link it to the adjoining cartoon.

Nor could the editor expect the ordinary reader to know that the caricature reflected the editorial.

The caricature complained of portrayed Dr Sant against a background containing a nazi swastika and wearing a moustache similar to that of Adolf Hitler. As a result, the average reader would upon looking at the caricature notice a resemblance between Dr Sant and Hitler. The resemblance to Hitler was enough to render the caricature libellous and defamatory, the court ruled.