An appeals court overturned a judgement in which TV presenter Lou Bondi was found guilty of making defamatory remarks Alternattiva Demokratika spokesman Mark Causon.

Mr Bondi, in his article, License to Character Kill, published on 16 October 2005 issue of The Malta Independent on Sunday, accused Mr Causon of carrying out excavation works in his own property without the necessary permits.

The Court of Magistrates found Mr Bondi guilty in absentia and fined him Lm800. In turn, he appealed the decision on the grounds that Mr Causon did not present enough evidence to support his claims.

Documents presented in court by Mr Causon showed that he carried out work that did not need to be covered by a Malta Environment and Planning Authority permit, and only later applied for the sanctioning of excavation works even though it was the ground itself that caved in.

However Mepa officers confirmed there were excavations carried out without permit in an archeologically sensitive area in Mr Causon’s garden.

The court, presided over by Mr Justice Philip Sciberras, said the article reproduces abstracts from the Mepa report as well as subjective criticism on Causon’s behaviour. It added that the facts stated in the article were not invented. It said that in its opinion, the writer’s opinion was not far off from what a reader of average intelligence might have concluded given the evidence.