The former editor of The Times Victor Aquilina and former journalist Sharon Spiteri were yesterday not found guilty of publishing libellous material.

Ivan Formosa had asked the police on November, 22, 1999 to proceed against Mr Aquilina and Ms Spiteri following the publication of an article dealing with his deceased brother who had been murdered in Qawra.

Mr Formosa said that the article, which described his brother as a known homosexual, was wholly untrue and libellous as it tarnished his brother's reputation.

The court, presided over by Magistrate Michael Mallia, said that the article had to be evaluated according to whether an ordinary citizen would deem it as being libellous and not on the basis of Mr Formosa's feelings.

The fact that the article described the brother as a known homosexual could not be interpreted as tarnishing the man's reputation.

Given the prevailing culture, a person's sexual orientation is not a matter of public interest except in order to ensure that there is no discrimination against such person on grounds of such orientation.

In this day and age, it would not be considered libellous if a person's name is published and the person is described as being homosexual. Taking into account Police Inspector Chris Pullicino's testimony, where he said that investigations had included the "homosexual factor" and this was what the newspaper had reported, the article cannot be deemed as being libellous.

The court also referred to Mr Formosa's testimony where he had said that his late brother's wife had alleged that her husband was homosexual and that was why she had left him.

The court therefore found nothing wrong in reporting about police investigations so long as this does not prejudice police work.

Lawyer Stefan Frendo appeared for Mr Aquilina and Ms Spiteri.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.