Some 160,000 articles have been written about Yorgen Fenech since 2019, with more than 440 being penned by blogger Manuel Delia, Fenech's lawyer said on Thursday.

Lawyer Charles Mercieca was arguing in court proceedings in which Fenech is suing Delia over an unpublished right of reply following a blog post titled “Nobody Moves” that was published on October 25.

That post had made reference to a story published by Times of Malta about some €1.7 million spent by government on a fleet of electric buses “delivered by a company owned by Yorgen Fenech and his family”.

That company was Commercial Vehicles Imports Limited.

The following day, Fenech’s lawyers emailed Delia, pointing out that their client had nothing to do with that company and requested a correction to the article. 

An email exchange followed and ultimately the requested right of reply was not published because the second paragraph of that written reply was deemed by Delia to be in itself defamatory.

Delia’s lawyers argued that, therefore, he was not bound to publish it.

Moreover, the request was unfounded because Delia had simply reproduced, in correct manner, the story reported by Times of Malta, his lawyers said. 

The matter ended up in court. 

On Thursday, Magistrate Rachel Montebello heard final submissions before judgment in the proceedings which, by their very nature, called for expeditious handling.

A right of reply served to correct any misrepresentation of facts and to set the record straight and that is precisely what Fenech meant to do, said Mercieca.

Not only was Fenech not involved in that bus company but he wanted to point out that Delia’s blog was another “in a series of articles” placing him in a bad light, went on the lawyer, pointing out that the blogger had published over “440 articles about Fenech” all casting the businessman in a negative light. 

As for his claim that Fenech’s reply was in itself defamatory, Mercieca questioned whether that was truly the case or rather an assertion of facts to set the record straight. 

Delia had attributed corruption and maladministration to Fenech when he was not involved in the company referred to in the Times of Malta story, as confirmed by a representative of the Malta Business Registry who testified earlier at Thursday’s sitting. 

Moreover, no superfluous or arrogant terms were used in Fenech’s reply, Mercieca insisted.

“Delia has his views and political opinion… but it’s obvious that there is a misrepresentation of facts.”

That argument was promptly rebutted by Delia’s lawyer, Andrew Borg Cardona who pointed out that Fenech had “accused a journalist of fake news” in his reply and that in itself was defamatory.

Had Fenech limited his reply to a correction of facts, supplying details of the company to prove his claim, then there would have been no problem to publish. 

But his right of reply went beyond that, attacking the journalist of fake news and that was why it was rejected, Borg Cardona said, insisting that there had been no misrepresentation in respect of Fenech. 

“Yorgen Fenech has been targeted by an unprecedented press campaign… saying he was not would not be living in the real world,” insisted the applicant’s lawyer.

But Delia’s lawyer put in a final word.

Time ago he himself and others had ended up on a political “poster” and labelled as those allegedly involved in an orchestrated campaign against the Labour Party, said Borg Cardona.

Judgment is expected to be delivered next month. 

Lawyers Matthew Cutajar and Eve Borg Costanzi also assisted Delia.