Medical consultant wins libel damages

A magistrate yesterday ordered the editor and a journalist of MaltaToday to pay former Labour MP Louis Buhagiar a total of Lm4,000 libel damages between them.

Magistrate Dennis Montebello ordered MaltaToday editor Saviour Balzan to pay Lm1,500 and journalist Kurt Sansone to pay Lm2,500 to Dr Buhagiar over an article entitled Maltese Doctors In UK Insurance Probe, published on May 5, 2002.

Dr Buhagiar, a medical consultant, had filed a libel suit arguing that the article, and a string of articles that followed, were libellous and defamatory.

The articles alleged that a number a tourists had fallen victims to doctors and consultants, that excessive rates were being charged and that unethical behaviour was being practised.

Magistrate Montebello ruled that the content of the articles shed bad light on Dr Buhagiar and were in fact defamatory.