The former editor of Nationalist Party television station NET TV Anton Attard was ordered to pay One TV presenter Alfred Zammit Lm1,000 by way of damages after a news item on NET News portrayed Mr Zammit as being involved in an animal cruelty incident during an MLP mass meeting.

The court heard how on 19 January 2003, Mr Zammit participated in the Labour Party’s first mass meeting in the run up to the European Union referendum. Mr Zammit told the court that during the event, he noticed a bottle on a roof that would have been dangerous, had it fallen to the road below where the meeting was being held.

He told the court, presided over by magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, that he left the stage and proceeded to the roof where the glass bottle was located. Later that evening, he was told about news footage on NET TV in which youths were shown with a rabbit in their hands. In the same footage, Mr Zammit featured on a nearby roof. He complained that the footage was edited in such a way that it linked him to the animal cruelty incident.

Handing down her judgement, magistrate Scerri Herrera ruled that Mr Attard, as editor of the news bulletin, was responsible for the way the footage was edited, which had been done

deliberately to tarnish Mr Zammit’s reputation. She therefore ordered Mr Attard to pay Mr Zammit Lm1,000 by way of

damages.