In-Nazzjon ordered to pay Leo Brincat €3,000 in libel damages

Former environment minister Leo Brincat has been awarded €3,000 in damages for an article that falsely inflated his travel expenditure to twelve and a half times the actual outlay.

The 2014 article, published in PN organ In-Nazzjon, claimed that Brincat had spent nearly €1 million in flights on official business in just 19 months. The issue had even been raised in parliament by PN MP Claudette Buttigieg.

Brincat, in a later parliamentary sitting, had tabled documents that showed his travel bill for the period since his election to be a more modest €82,000. The article was not corrected after this.

The defendant had not submitted any evidence to justify the article's claims.

Deciding the matter in favour of the plaintiff, magistrate Francesco Depasquale commented that for the defence of fair comment and value judgment to succeed it must be based on facts that are substantially true. In this case, the court noted, the article had been based on assertions that had been proven false.

Quoting an appeal judgment in Sylvana Debono vs Alexander Farrugia, decided in January last year, the court observed that the right to freedom of expression is not a licence to sully somebody's reputation and then attempt to hide behind this right.”