Columnist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia said she had called Labour Party deputy leader Toni Abela a clown because he had gone on One television and took part in the programme “Teletubi”, during which show Dr Abela had looked at a female puppet’s breasts and called the puppet shuna (horny).
She also said that her criticism was mainly for Dr Abela’s rudeness. “They are obscene remarks,” Mrs Caruana Galizia said. Asked if she knew what capacity Dr Abela had at the time and when the programme was aired, she said she could not remember
Mrs Caruana Galizia, testifying before Magistrate Francesco Depasquale, also said she can’t understand why Dr Abela had been offended, when such comments were also made towards Jason Micallef and Anglu Farrugia, had not filed any libel suit against her.
She was testifying in a libel case against her by Dr Toni Abela for the article “Ajma x'biza, an earthquake warning, hej”, published on 12 August, 2008, in which she had described Dr Abela, Anglu Farrugia and Jason Micallef as “clowns, idiots and incompetents.
Answering questions in court by Dr Abela, who is acting as his own lawyer, she said that similar comments occur in any country that is democratic. She also said that that Dr. Abela can’t expect no criticism if he’s in politics.
“This was what is done in other countries,” she said, adding that the problem with politicians in Malta was that they took themselves too seriously. Mrs Caruana Galizia told the court that it could take her two years to prove to the court just how incompetent Dr Abela was. She said that a clown, in English, did not mean a character with red hair and big red nose but stupid behaviour.
Mrs Caruana Galizia also said that Dr Abela should not take participate in such a programme like “Teletubi”. And when asked by Dr Abela if she knows whether other politicians have also participated, she said that she does not agree they should go. She also told the Labour Party’s Deputy Leader that he also had a programme entitled Robin Hood where its aim was to make a mockery out of people. “People like you should not be elected in high ranks duties,” she said.
When asked if there are politicians who wear women’s clothes in programmes such as Xarabank, Ms. Caruana Galizia said that if the whole concept is fund-raising, than that’s ok, but peeping through “puppet breasts” is awful.