‘Public servants subject to wider limits of criticism’, court says in MaltaToday acquittal

MaltaToday editor Matthew Vella and journalist Raphael Vassallo have been acquitted of a criminal libel filed by the former prisons chief Abraham Zammit and three prison wardens.

The wardens – Raymond Theuma, Carmelo Bonnici, and James Abela – who were not even named in the article ‘Grim reality of Victorian prison conditions’, published in MaltaToday Midweek back in 9 January, 2011, took issue with claims made by a Dutch inmate who said they had witnessed his abuse at the hand of other prison wardens.

The article in question relayed claims by Perry Ingomar Toornstra of the injuries he sustained after being captured in a failed escape, by the prison wardens who caught him. The report also stated that an SMU police riot squad helmet was exhibited in the office of Abraham Zammit, which claims were later confirmed in court by witnesses.

After the start of these criminal libel proceedings against MaltaToday, in December 2013 the wardens accused of causing grievous injuries to Toornstra – Francis Debono, Francis Meli, Daniel Cuschieri and George Falzon – were handed prison terms, later suspended on appeal in February 2016.

MaltaToday had published claims made Toornstra of the deleterious conditions in Corradino Correctional Facility that inmates were enduring, and of the injuries he sustained by the wardens who attacked him, in a letter he sent to then home affairs minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.

Toornstra had claimed that wardens Raymond Theuma, Carmelo Bonnici, and James Abela had witnessed the attack on him and alleged they had lied under oath in the law courts to cover up for their colleagues.

In court, Abraham Zammit confirmed that he was a collector of police uniforms, which claim was corroborated by prison inmate and eyewitness Emanuel Camilleri, who said he had seen a Special Mobile Unit riot squad helmet in Zammit’s office.

Zammit himself confirmed he had received training along with officers from the notorious SMU unit in 1978 and 1979, by North Korean trainers.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale, in acquitting the two MaltaToday journalists, said that as a public servant, Zammit was “subject to wider limits of acceptable criticism than a private individual” and that the article concerns the actions of his role as a prisons chief.

Raphael Vasallo’s commentary throughout the article, Depasquale continued, were otherwise valid in as much as they sought to point out shortcomings within the prisons system.

“Not only does the press have the task of imparting such information and ideas,” Depasquale wrote in his judgement citing the Axel Springer case, “the public also has a right to receive them. Were it otherwise, the press would be unable to play its vital role of ‘public watchdog’.”

Additionally, Depasquale said that in fulfilling its role, journalistic freedom also covered a degree of “exaggeration” and that genuine mistakes can be tolerated in the serious investigative journalism. “The facts in the article, appear to be substantially correct,” the magistrate said.

Veronique Dalli appeared on behalf of the defendants.