Actor and Occupy Justice activist Pia Zammit has appealed a libel judgment she lost concerning a front-page story on newspaper it-Torċa which linked her to Nazism.

Zammit said the newspaper had published the photo maliciously to attack and intimidate her and said its publication was “nothing but a perversion of the truth”. 

She filed the appeal after a magistrates’ court threw out a libel suit she had filed against Victor Vella, editor of the Labour-leaning newspaper, over a story published in two consecutive issues in August last year. 

The focus of the story was a backstage photo of Zammit wearing a Nazi costume during rehearsals for a theatrical production of the wartime comedy ’Allo ’Allo, a popular BBC sitcom of the 1970s, staged at the Manoel Theatre back in 2009.

Zammit played the role of Michelle Dubois, a member of the French Resistance, whose aim was to trap the Nazis and save the French people.

In her appeal, Zammit argued that the publication was based on “a blatant logical fallacy” that sought to equate her to the Nazi symbol on her costume, thereby implying that both were equally detestable.

She said that the truth had been twisted and “weaponised”, in an attempt to punish her for her active role in civil society group #OccupyJustice.

The photo had been purposely taken out of context and made controversial, in an attempt to attack and intimidate Zammit, telling a “half-truth” and never describing Zammit as an actor but instead as “one of the Occupy Justice activists,” the appeal noted. 

The right to freedom of expression did not give the editor a right to twist the truth, put facts out of context and use them to strike at the appellant, tarnishing her and subjecting her to public scorn. 

Zammit said that anyone familiar with her knew that she had never shown the slightest degree of sympathy towards Nazism, but rather always spoke out in favour of the rule of law.

Being identified with Nazism was “the pinnacle of defamation,” even as evidenced by the fact that following it-Torca’s story, Zammit had been targeted by a number of negative writings and comments, labelling her a hypocrite and saying that people in glass houses should not throw stones. 

Juxtaposing Zammit’s real life with any of her stage roles, gave rise to perversity of facts and consequently, “a perversity at law.”

The appeal also noted that the original judgement had been based on the wrong premise that Zammit herself had posted the photo to her Facebook timeline, when this was not the case. 

Contrary to the Magistrate’s reasoning that freedom of expression calls for a more liberal interpretation, Zammit said the original judgment achieved the exact opposite by promoting the censorship of actors. 

Lawyer Joseph Zammit Maempel signed the appeal. 

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