A cartoon in The Times depicting the president of the Federation of Hunters, Trappers and Conservationists holding a shotgun and looking at an osprey was not libellous, the Magistrates Court has ruled.

The cartoon appeared on September 3, 2007 and it contained the words “forget it Joe it’s five minutes past three”.

FKNK president Joseph Buttigieg filed the libel suit against The Times editor Ray Bugeja and printer Vincent Buhagiar.

Mr Buttigieg said that the drawing was libellous for it insinuated that he had been hunting a protected bird in the afternoon even though such hunting had been prohibited by regulations issued that September. The court was told that the regulations prohibited hunting after 3 p.m. and that these regulations were aimed at protecting birds of prey.

But Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera ruled that the caricature was not libellous for, if anything, it depicted Mr Buttigieg as being a lover of the hunt who did not shoot protected birds such as ospreys. The drawing did not depict Mr Buttigieg pointing a shotgun at the bird, the magistrate said.