Activist Pia Zammit wins damages over Torċa’s ‘Allo Allo’ libel

Actress and Occupy Justice activist, Pia Zammit, has won her appeal against a court’s decision to dismiss a libel suit she filed against newspaper it-Torca, which had published an article insinuating she was a Nazi sympathiser.

The General Workers Union owned paper had published pictures of Zammit wearing a parody Nazi uniform costume, backstage at a performance of World War Two comedy "Allo Allo" and suggested the actress had made light of Nazi symbolism, publishing comments by an anonymous "educator", who claimed Zammit’s image had been offensive to victims of Nazism.

Zammit had filed an appeal to a 2020 decision by Magistrate Rachel Montebello, in which the court had ruled that the Torċa article constituted “fair comment” and not attribute Nazi sympathies to Zammit, but had simply reproduced her reaction to a photo.

The court concluded the two articles published on two consecutive Sundays, contained nothing defamatory and that Zammit had to expect criticism as a public figure.

The actress had filed an appeal, arguing the right to freedom of expression did not extend to a right to “twist the truth, pull facts out of their context, and use these facts as a weapon.”

In her appeal application, Zammit’s lawyer Joseph Zammit Maempel had argued that nowhere in the articles did the Torċa editor indicate that his client was an actor and that the photo had been taken ten years before, backstage at a comedy play that was based on Nazi-era France.

In a decision handed down today, Mr. Justice Lawrence Mintoff overturned the judgement of the court of magistrates. “It is widely said that a picture speaks a thousand words  and in the understanding of the court, it was used to send a message that the appellant, whilst participating in civil society campaigns to fight for justice, was at the same time trivialising and mocking the injustices suffered by millions of people under Nazism.”

The judge observed this was the narrative instigated by the defendant, Torċa editor Victor Vella, and that by publishing the picture “completely out of context” Vella and the August 2019 articles in question, had caused serious damage to Zammit’s reputation. The court ordered Vella to pay her €1,200 in moral damages and suffer the costs of the case, at both first and second instances.