Updated 12.50pm

Former minister Konrad Mizzi and his former communications coordinator, Lindsey Gambin were each awarded €1,000 in damages in two libel suits against slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The libels were filed by the former minister and his wife, Sai Mizzi Liang and Gambin, a former One journalist who became a communications consultant at Mizzi’s ministry at the time.

They revolved around a blog post published on Caruana Galizia’s Running Commentary on November 7, 2014. 

“This is the Super One journalist Konrad Mizzi has been seeing and the reason his wife left for China,” said the post. The libel suits were filed that same day.

Caruana Galizia claimed that some three months after the opening of parliament after the March 2013 election - one of the rare occasions when the minister and his wife were seen together in public - their relationship had deteriorated. 

In June that year, the minister had moved out of the matrimonial home to a Sliema apartment and in September his wife left for China, following her appointment as Malta Enterprise envoy, taking with her the couple’s children, Caruana Galizia said.

The government never published the details of her contract, simply saying “vaguely” that Sai Mizzi’s role was to facilitate the issuing of visas. 

Caruana Galizia claimed that the minister’s affair with his communications consultant was “an open secret” in media and political circles. 

A former “very high ranking police officer” who had left the corps on early retirement had allegedly told her that the minister and Gambin were seen “hugging and kissing” at the Tiffany Champagne and Cigar Room at the Hilton. 

When testifying in the proceedings in November 2015, the journalist was asked whether she had verified the information.

Although in certain cases it was difficult to contact the subject, in this case, she “had no reason to doubt” her source, Caruana Galizia had explained. 

Another AFM official had also spotted the couple at a bar in Old Mill Street, Valletta drinking wine on a Friday night.

“This is not normal behaviour. It’s not. It’s absolutely unprofessional behaviour,” Caruana Galizia had insisted when testifying. 

But the applicants denied the allegations.

Mizzi himself testified that the story had damaged him both personally and professionally, casting a shadow over his integrity in the eyes of the electorate. 

His wife also denied that she had relocated to China because her marriage broke down, saying it was a “career decision”.

Gambin also categorically denied that she had ever been in “an intimate embrace” with the minister.

Moreover, when Caruana Galizia alleged that she was in China with the minister, she was on holiday in the US and produced air tickets to support her claim. 

Peter Caruana Galizia also testified that he was next to his wife when she received that call from her source whom she described as “trustworthy”.

He said his wife used to receive many messages and calls about the rumours circulating at the time.

'No level playing field'

The journalist’s heirs pointed out that since Caruana Galizia had been killed and they did not know her sources, there was no level playing field in the proceedings. 

They raised the plea of fair comment in defence. 

When delivering judgment, the court, presided over by Magistrate Victor George Axiak, observed that it was difficult to gauge with certainty what right-thinking members of society, having ordinary intelligence, thought of extra-marital affairs. 

Although values had changed over the past 30 years, cheating on one’s partner was still viewed as immoral and improper. 

The comments posted by readers under the blog were evidence of that, said the court.

Moreover, the Running Commentary was popular and widely read even beyond these shores and the posts were still accessible. 

The allegation that the Malta Enterprise contract was just to cover up the breakdown of the minister’s marriage and his wife relocation to China, was serious.

The implication that Gambin benefited through her relationship with the minister was degrading since it nullified “all that the applicant [Gambin] may have acquired throughout the years on her own steam”.

On the other hand, the court could not ignore the fact that it was “difficult if not impossible” for Caruana Galizia’s heirs to prove the veracity of the story since sources could not be revealed.

The court declared the blog post defamatory and ordered the journalist’s heirs to pay the liquidated damages. 

Lawyers Edward Gatt and Mark Vassallo assisted the applicants.