Ministers win Lm6,500 libel damages

The Labour Party and the editor of l-orizzont were yesterday ordered to pay Lm6,500 between them libel damages to nine government ministers.

The judgment was handed down by Mr Justice Giannino Caruana Demajo in the First Hall of the Civil Court.

The writ had been filed in 1999 by former Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami, who has renounced the suit after being elected President of the Republic, and by ministers Tonio Borg, Josef Bonnici, Louis Galea, Joe Borg, John Dalli, Louis Deguara, Ninu Zammit, Censu Galea, Austin Gatt and Lawrence Gonzi, today Prime Minister.

They claimed they had been libelled by an article entitled Irresponsabbli: Ghalihom Aktar Lussu... Infieq f'Karrozzi Godda (Irresponsible: More luxury for them... Expenses in new cars) published in l-orizzont on June 28, 1999.

In its judgment, the court noted that Dr Fenech Adami had withdrawn his suit after being elected President and that the case was continued by the other ministers.

Mr Justice Caruana Demajo dismissed a preliminary plea filed by the MLP to the effect that it could not be sued for libel as it was not a physical person and could not therefore be the author of the article.

The court noted that the Press Act defined "person" as being a physical person and a juridical or moral person such as the MLP. Consequently, this preliminary plea was dismissed.

When examining the merits of the case the court declared that the average reader would conclude from reading the article that each of the ministers had spent an excessive amount of money on cars for their personal use. The article also implied that the public had to pay more in taxes to pay for this luxury.

It resulted from the evidence produced that each ministry, for which the individual ministers were responsible, had spent a sum approximate to that mentioned in the article and printed next to the photo of each minister.

However, except in the case of the ministries for agriculture and fisheries and that for foreign affairs, the cars were not purchased for the use of the ministers but for the departments. In some cases it resulted that more than one car had been purchased to meet the requirements of the department in question.

Mr Justice Caruana Demajo declared that had defendants merely stated that a car was a luxury, this would not have been libellous, for it was a comment and an appreciation of the facts. However, defendants had declared that the cars had been purchased for the enjoyment of the ministers, which was a statement of fact that had been proven to be false.

In the case of the then foreign minister it resulted from the evidence produced that although the article declared that he had spent Lm23,000 on a car for himself, in fact three cars had been purchased for that sum. One car was for the minister and the other two were for other functionaries in the ministry.

When referring to Zammit, the court noted that it resulted that Lm11,600 had been spent on a car for the minister's use. This was not libellous for defendants were entitled to express their opinion that to spend almost Lm12,000 on a car for the minister's use was a luxury. It was then up to the reader to establish whether he was in agreement with this opinion.

However, the court concluded that all the ministers, save for Zammit, had been libelled for defendants had not passed a fair comment but had published falsehoods.

Mr Justice Caruana Demajo added that the libel was most serious in the cases of Tonio Borg, Bonnici, Louis Galea, Joe Borg and Dalli for the figures published near their photos in connection with the article were very high. In the case of Deguara, Gonzi, Censu Galea and Gatt the libel was not as serious for the figures published were not so high.

In conclusion, the court condemned the MLP and the editor of l-orizzont to pay between them a total of Lm6,500 libel damages to all ministers except for Zammit.

Tonio Borg, Bonnici, Louis Galea, Joe Borg and Dalli were each awarded Lm900. Deguara, Gonzi, Censu Galea and Gatt were each awarded Lm500.

Joe Zammit Maempel was counsel to the ministers.

Pawlu Lia was counsel to the MLP and Joe Micallef Stafrace was counsel to l-orizzont.