MaltaToday cleared of two libel cases by former Times journalist Ivan Camilleri

A court has rejected two libel cases filed against MaltaToday and Illum journalists by former Times of Malta journalist Ivan Camilleri over stories reporting Camilleri as having tipped off the Tumas magnate Yorgen Fenech about his impending arrest, leading to Camilleri’s subsequent dismissal.

Camilleri had filed libel proceedings against MaltaToday’s owner Saviour Balzan and Kurt Sansone, MaltaToday’s online editor at the time, over a story titled ‘Times sacks Ivan Camilleri after alleged tip-off to Yorgen Fenech mentioned in court,’ which had been published in December 2019.

The article reported that Camilleri had been dismissed by the Times in the light of testimony by the lead investigator about the discovery of a message about a journalist identified only as ‘Ivan’ that had been found in Fenech’s mobile phone, alerting him that the police were looking into his involvement.

The subsequent MaltaToday article reported that the Whatsapp message had been sent by Yorgen Fenech to his uncle, Ray Fenech, said that ‘Ivan’ had warned him that the police viewed him as a person of interest to the investigation.

Camilleri had declined to comment when contacted by the MaltaToday, saying only that he would be fighting what he described as his unfair dismissal.

The allegations were twofold, said the court: firstly, that Camilleri had been fired because of the alleged tip-off sent to Yorgen Fenech on the night before his arrest, a fact which had emerged during the criminal proceedings against Fenech; secondly that there was evidence to show that Camilleri had in fact passed on this information to the suspect.

In his testimony, Camilleri said that he had filed the libel case because he had felt aggrieved at being linked to the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. He denied ever communicating with Yorgen Fenech, his uncle Ray Fenech or any other family member so as to discuss issues relating to the murder.

Superintendent Keith Arnaud, the lead investigator, had not initially mentioned the name “Ivan” in his testimony during the criminal proceedings against Fenech, but had replied to a question by lawyer Jason Azzopard, who had asked whether there had been a message to the effect that “Ivan tat-Times” had provided Fenech with advance warning of the police suspicions.

Magistrate says Ivan Camilleri had to expect ‘certain measure of criticism’

Magistrate Rachel Montebello observed that as a prominent journalist working at a prominent newspaper, Camilleri had to expect a “certain measure of criticism and public scrutiny in connection with allegations that he had been mentioned in connection with a tip-off given to a person accused of the murder of a journalist, amongst other incidents.”

The court observed that the allegation that a journalist, bound by a duty of professionality and integrity, was associating with and passing on confidential information to a person accused of the murder of a fellow journalist, an act constituting “a betrayal of the ethical principles of journalism, amongst them the duty to serve the public interest and not individual interest,” and that this subsequently led to his dismissal were intrinsically damaging to that journalist’s professional reputation.

However, the court did not agree that the article in question, when read in full, declared that Camilleri had been identified by name during the compilation of evidence. “To the contrary, the article declares without hesitation that the name of the journalist who allegedly provided information to Yorgen Fenech was not revealed in the compilation of evidence, but by MaltaToday’s sources who said that the police had discovered messages sent by Fenech to his uncle, in which he stated that a certain Ivan had warned him about ‘police interest.’”

It was noted that the article stated: “The mention of an unnamed journalist was made on Thursday morning during the compilation of evidence against Fenech, accused with having masterminded the assassination of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.”

Superintendent Keith Arnaud, the lead investigator, had not initially mentioned the name “Ivan” in his testimony during the criminal proceedings against Fenech, but had replied to a question by lawyer Jason Azzopard, who had asked whether there had been a message to the effect that “Ivan tat-Times” had provided Fenech with advance warning of the police suspicions.

There was no doubt, said the court, that from the plaintiff’s own evidence the name “Ivan” had truly been mentioned during the compilation of evidence, in the context of being linked to the Times.

Times of Malta editor-in-chief testifies on Camilleri’s dismissal

Times of Malta editor-in-chief Herman Grech had also testified in the libel case, telling the court that on the same day that Arnaud’s testimony was reported, he had called up the only other journalist named Ivan working at the newspaper, Ivan Martin, asking whether he was the leaker in question. Martin had assured Grech that it was not him and provided his editor with evidence to show that his last contact with Fenech had been in July 2019.

Grech told the court that he had already been informed by multiple sources that Camilleri had been in contact with Fenech, one of whom had told him that Fenech and Camilleri had exchanged messages on the day before Fenech’s arrest.

Other journalists working at the Times had told Grech that they were uncomfortable working in the newsroom in Camilleri’s presence, because he had been saying that Fenech’s arrest was a frame-up. Another journalist had told Grech that Camilleri had asked who had sent him to the Portomaso marina that night.

The newspaper’s directors had been informed of this when they sent for Grech on December 19 2019. Grech explained that Camilleri’s involvement in the leak had emerged in the same week that MaltaToday had published a story about Camilleri shoplifting from a supermarket and that these two incidents had led to the termination of Camilleri’s employment.

Magistrate Montebello said it was clear that the publication in question was reporting the existence of evidence showing that the communication between Camilleri and Fenech took place and not stating that the communication had taken place, as a fact.

No part of the story alleged that the Police had discovered messages exchanged directly between Camilleri and Fenech and there was nothing in the defendants’ statements which implied that this communication was an established fact, ruled the magistrate.

The libel case against Balzan and Sansone, as well as that against Yendrick Cioffi, who worked for Illum, were dismissed with the court also ordering the costs to be borne by Camilleri.

Deciding a third libel case filed by Camilleri against Balzan was handed down today, the court awarded Ivan Camilleri €2,500, declaring an article in which Balzan had encouraged Camilleri’s former employers, the Times of Malta to revisit his stories, “to see how many of his articles were linked to cosy relationships with vested business interests,” to be defamatory, ruling that the defendant had not submitted transcripts of testimony given in separate criminal proceedings, where it had been revealed that Yorgen Fenech had contacts with the media in a conversation between Fenech and Keith Schembri.

Lawyers Veronique Dalli and Andrew Saliba assisted Saviour Balzan and Kurt Sansone.