A former editor of the GWU daily newspaper has been ordered to pay Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil €3,000 in damages after a court found that a front page report entitled ‘Dhul mhux dikjarat’ (undeclared income) was libellous.

Dr Busuttil had sued former editor of L-Orizzont Sandro Mangion over the 3 April 2014 report, which alleged that Dr Busuttil had failed to declare his income from ERCS Ltd, which won some €1.2 million in government contracts during the PN administration.

It said that in 2012 when he was still MEP, Simon Busuttil declared his income from the Malta Information Centre (MIC) and from the Ganado Sammut Advocates legal firm, but had not listed any income from ERCS Ltd. Dr Busuttil, the newspaper claimed, had failed in his duty to declare all income in his declaration of assets.

But the court, presided over by Magistrate Francesco Depasquale, found that the newspaper failed to carry out proper research into Dr Busuttil’s role in the company and whether he had benefited from any profits.

It found that ERCS Ltd has two shareholders – EMCS Investments Ltd and Gansam Holdings Ltd. Dr Busuttil held a third of Gansam’s shares. The company did not declare any dividends in 2011 and all profits were kept in the company’s books. This meant that Dr Busuttil did not earn anything from Gansam or ERCS in 2011. This was the reason why no income from the two companies was mentioned in his declaration of assets.

The court also noted that Dr Busuttil could never have declared income from ERCS Ltd, since he held no shares in that company.

The Magistrate said the author of the report could have easily verified this information with a little research. The defendant’s argument that he was simply passing information to the readers to make their own conclusion was unjustified because the newspaper was not giving them all the information.

For these reasons the court deemed the report to be libellous and slanderous.

Mr Mangion was ordered to pay Dr Busuttil €3,000 in damages.