Court orders freezing of journalists’ assets

The court has ordered the freezing of financial assets belonging to Times of Malta editor-in-chief Steve Mallia and head of news Ariadne Massa after the newspaper failed to pay damages it owes over a libel case.

Times of Malta had lost a libel case instituted by the Malta Union of Midwives and the court had ordered the newspaper to pay four MUMN officials €4,000 in damages – down from €11,500.

But after Times of Malta failed to pay the union because it had referred the case to the Constitutional Court, the court today upheld a request by MUMN to freeze the journalists’ assets.

In September 2012, the Magistrates’ Court found that the article – ‘Patients Swindled In Scam: Top MUMN Official Investigated’ – was libellous.

The appeals court had also ruled that although the facts reported in the story were correct, the newspaper's sub-heading could have been interpreted as referring to the organisation’s executive when its members were not involved in any way.

Former MUMN president Paul Pace, Colin Galea, George Saliba and Maria Cutajar had filed libel proceedings, claiming the story defamed them.

In court, the journalists argued that the story had not referred to any of the four executive officials and the sub-heading did not identify any of them.

The article reported that a nurse and a salesman had swindled vulnerable patients out of hundreds of euros by offering therapy not provided by the government, and leading them to believe it was free.

The story said that the nurse involved was “employed in a managerial position at Mater Dei Hospital and occupied a top post” within the MUMN structures. The unnamed nurse implicated in the scam was the chairman of a sub-committee of the nurses’ union.