Journalist Kurt Sansone and MaltaToday editor Saviour Balzan were yesterday ordered to pay Lm4,000 between them in damages after the court ruled that a number of articles about former Labour Health Minister Louis Buhagiar contained serious and defamatory allegations aimed at tarnishing his reputation.

The article in question, written by Mr Sansone, was entitled: Maltese doctor in UK insurance probe, which was published on 5 May 2002, but the court also considered another three articles with more or less the same contents.

In the said articles, the author claimed that Prof. Buhagiar, a doctor by profession, had cheated a number of tourists and that a number of tourists had fallen victims of doctors and consultants. Prof. Buhagiar felt aggrieved about the use of certain words such as unethical behaviour and the charging of excessive fees and in fact the court ruled that these were defamatory.

Prof. Buhagiar also complained about the use of other words and phrases such as “abusive behaviour”.

Handing down his judgement, magistrate Dennis Montebello said the articles written by Mr Sansone and published by Mr Balzan as his editor were defamatory and aimed at tarnishing Prof. Buhagiar’s reputation as a doctor and as a Member of Parliament. Since then, Prof. Buhagiar left the political scene.

Magistrate Montebello ordered Mr Balzan to pay Prof. Buhagiar Lm1,500 in damages and Mr Sansone was ordered to pay Lm2,500. The maximum amount of damages which can be ordered by law in a libel suit is Lm5,000.

Dr Edward Zammit Lewis and Dr Jose Herrera appeared for Prof. Buhagiar.