Former editor of GWU newspaper it-Torca Aleks Farrugia today was not found guilty of slander when one of his journalists, Mark Camilleri, passed a remark in the newspaper implying that former Mepa secretary, Sylvana Debono, was working hand in hand with the Nationalist Party so that Mepa favours certain individuals.

The article appeared on 29 April, 2012 when the Nationalist Party was in government.

The article had read: "There are still perceptions that Mepa gives more importance to developers than the environment. Today, accusations are still being made that Mepa is used by the government as a means for favours to be granted to certain idnividuals, and some time ago maltastar.com alleged that an employee of Mepa, Sylvana Debono, is working with the PN so that favours are granted to certain individuals".

This remark evidently irritated Ms Debono who filed a libel suit against the newspaper.

The court argued that the journalist based his write up on other comments made in other media by columnists, referring to maltastar.com and the article was only based on perceptions. In fact, Ms Debono never sued Maltastar for the comments which Camilleri quoted in it-Torca and therefore did not find the newspaper editor guilty of slander.