Former GRTU President Vince Farrugia has lost a criminal libel case he filed against l-Orizzont, with the Court stating that Mr Farrugia had only attended a single sitting and did not identify the offending section of the article.

The article in question was called “Min hu gurdien, Cens?” published in 2012, and the Orizzont editor, Josef Caruana, was accused of slander. The Court said that Mr Farrugia never testified to indicate which part of the story he considered defamatory.

Magistrate Francesco Depasquale stated that this alone showed a lack of interest by Mr Farrugia in the complaint. Mr Farrugia had presented a copy of the article to the court with all the text being highlighted, however the Magistrate argued that this indication was not satisfactory to the court as to which part of the text was defamatory. The Court explained that Mr Farrugia had not confirmed his complaint before the court.

Magistrate Depasquale noted that no evidence was brought linking the Orizzont editor to the parts Mr Farrugia considered defamatory.

GRTU President Paul Abela had given evidence in court, however noting Mr Farrugia’s lack of interest in proceedings, the court noted that the case did not merit court attention. He described the handling of the case by Mr Farrugia as amateurish and indicated that criminal libel cases threaten freedom of expression and can result in prison time, should they be abused. He argued that the handling of this case was an abuse of criminal proceedings aimed at hampering freedom of expression.

The court found Mr Caruana not guilty.