Allo, Allo! skit: Occupy activist loses Torċa ‘Nazi actress’ libel

Updated at 4:30pm with Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association statement 

A court has ruled against actress and Occupy Justice activist, Pia Zammit in a libel case she filed against the editor of it-Torċa, Victor Vella.

Zammit had sued the newspaper for libel in 2019, saying that a report published in the newspaper suggested she was a Nazi sympathiser.

The paper had published pictures of her in a parody Nazi uniform costume, backstage at a performance of WW2 comedy Allo Allo and suggested that the actress had made light of Nazi symbolism, publishing comments by an anonymous ‘educator’ who claimed that Zammit’s image had been offensive to victims of Nazism.

Zammit’s lawyer Joseph Zammit Maempel had argued that the same newspaper had reviewed the play during its 2009 run.

“So, they know this play, they know that Pia Zammit is playing a member of the French resistance against the Nazis. If she was doing something, it was against the Nazis,” he pointed out, adding that “the parody is so obvious, it is the article which is disgusting not her behaviour.”

But Magistrate Rachel Montebello disagreed, upholding the arguments made by lawyer Aaron Mifsud Bonnici, for the GWU-owned newspaper.

Mifsud Bonnici had told the court that “a photo of a well-known person wearing a swastika is a controversial action and insisted that expressing disagreement with such actions is a fundamental human right”. 

“The controversy is not that she sympathises with Nazism but the use of it in comedy. Silly things about matters of great importance is insensitive,” Mifsud Bonnici argued.

Magistrate's ruling

In its judgment on the matter, the court said that the context of the photograph had been explained by the plaintiff herself and had been given prominence both in the article as well as the titles of the publications.

Zammit herself had said that the photograph alone was not libellous and it had previously been published and spread on social media, noted the court.

The publication on the front page and interior of the newspaper was not accompanied by offensive language or “imputations of Nazi sympathies, illegalities or immorality,” but “simply the explanation verbatim given by the plaintiff herself about the context,” said the magistrate, ruling that this could not be taken as defamatory.

In addition to this, the libel action “failed irremediably” due to the fact that the element of serious harm to Zammit’s reputation was missing, said the court.

The court observed that the publications at issue “could not be seen as anything but expressions of opinion about the facts in the photograph,” adding that the statements should be treated as value judgments.

Zammit, as an actress and #Occupyjustice activist, was a person in the public eye, said the court, also stating that it was not proven that the statements were not the opinion of the defendant and neither had it been shown that the publication was done maliciously.

The judgment against Zammit also ordered her to pay the all costs of the case.

Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association statement 

Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association (MEIA) said in a statement on Facebook, that it was "deeply concerned," with the judgement on the libel case filed by actress Pia Zammit against It-Torċa.

"If courts of law are unable to differentiate between the performer and the characters they play, then today we have established a dangerous and serious precedent that threatens the work of performing artists and freedom of creative expression," MEIA said.

MEIA expressed its solidarity, Zammit. "When one of us is not protected, then none of us are. MEIA will take all the necessary action to protect the Maltese artist," the association said.