News 07/07/2002

Vote rigging libel case against MaltaToday thrown out

The court dismissed a libel case filed by Labour MP Anglu Farrugia against MaltaToday editor Saviour Balzan in August 2000 over an article about vote rigging allegations in the Labour Party’s leadership race in 1992.

Dr Farrugia was also ordered to pay the costs of the suit.

The case goes back to August 2000 when MaltaToday published an article under the heading ‘Vote rigging report not concluded.’

The article claimed that ‘Dr Anglu Farrugia, who is counsel for Mr Muscat and who was under attack by an MLP insider for having rushed to Mr Muscat’s assistance, has neither confirmed nor denied the leak.’

Dr Farrugia also felt libelled by another article with the title ‘Deflecting attention – Malta’s Baron Munchausen’ in which the newspaper stated that, ‘He must have some delirious visions of Alfred Sant’s head on a plate’ and ‘It does not stop there, the Labour inner core folk, make it known that they too are not very happy with Dr Farrugia’s loquacious habits.’

Dr Farrugia had asked the court to condemn Saviour Balzan because the articles exposed him to public ridicule and contempt.

But the court decreed otherwise. On the first article the court said that the leak mentioned in the article cannot be attributed to Dr Farrugia. "It does not necessarily refer to the plaintiff (Dr Farrugia)," the court said reiterating that "there was nothing libellous in the article."

On the second article the court said that the criticism could be considered to be fair comment and was permissible in a democratic society given the public post occupied by Dr Farrugia.

The court thus upheld Saviour Balzan’s plea and dismissed the suit with costs. Dr Farrugia has said that he intends to appeal the decision.