The former deputy leader of the Labour Party, Dr Toni Abela, today was ordered to pay €2,000 to former PBS head of news Natalino Fenech after the court decided that an article which appeared on Kulhadd, of which Dr Abela was editor, newspaper was defamatory.

The article carried the title ‘Manipulat: Jipposponu l-imparzjalita’ghal wara Gunju!’ featured on the newspaper on 8 April 2012. The article appeared on a page titled TV Manipulata, a column penned under the name of Silvio Gonzi.

Mr Fenech filed a libel suit against Dr Abela as he thought the article was defamatory and portrayed Mr Fenech as a fanatic supporter of the Nationalist Party, and that he did his duty as head of news of the national television station in a partisan manner.

The article also said that Fenech was the ‘chief gatekeeper of the Nationalist government.’

It appears that in the article in question, also referred to other persons involved in the editorial board of PBS, including Joe Pirotta and a number of television programmes presented by Claudette Buttigieg, Pierre Portelli, Joe Mifsud (now a Magistrate) and Lou Bondi.

Natalino Fenech presented a number of Parliamentary Questions, including one by MP Gino Cauchi which showed how in a period of 12 months, there were 140 stories reported about the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition each.

More than 275 stories were written about the various government Ministries and 125 stories which referred to the spokespersons of the Opposition of the time.

From further documents presented before the Magistrate, in the month of March 2012, the government had issued 286 press releases, while the newsroom reported 35 news items related to the government and 29 stories regarding the Opposition.

Between 23 and 28 March 2012, TVM newsroom reported 10 items related to the health, which also included speeches by leader of the Opposition. It also reported the issue which arose between MUMN and MAM and a number of stories on the various operations at Mater Dei.

Lawyer Toni Abela said that the Labour Party used to complain regularly on the way stories were reported at PBS. The court, presided by Magistrate Francesco Depasquale, said that Dr Abela failed to present any form of evidence to substantiate the allegations about Natalino Fenech.

On the other hand, it was noted that Mr Fenech had presented sufficient evidence that the news were properly balanced between items on the Government and the Opposition.

The court found that the article was defamatory and ordered Toni Abela to pay a fine of €2,000 to Mr Fenech.