Yesterday, we received the news that we lost a libel and defamation case instituted against us by Simon Mercieca, an academic at the University of Malta and the Department of History. The libel case, which was initiated by Simon Mercieca in May 2023, was partially won in his favour and the Court concluded that we are to pay him up to €2,500 in “moral damages”, apart from paying Court fees. Total cost may be above €5,000.
You can read the Court sentence in full from this link.
We comply with Court rulings against us and we have always been fair to bring both sides of the story. We have always published right of replies.
Even though we comply with Court rulings, and fulfil our obligations to the law, it doesn’t necessarily mean we agree with the Court rulings that are forced upon us.
The latest Court ruling against us significantly raises the bar on the amount of evidence that is needed to be submitted by journalists in Court. We would like to point out that in a dysfunctional state where the Police are actively protecting criminals instead of investigating them, our work is significantly more difficult.
Simon Mercieca, as a publicly-paid academic with the University of Malta, has voluntarily decided to regularly engage in lies and falsehoods to advocate for suspected criminal, Yorgen Fenech, apart from attacking the family of the slain journalist Yorgen Fenech is accused of murdering, Daphne Caruana Galizia. We are proud that despite constant and serious setbacks, we have never compromised our integrity, always stood strong by our values, and stand still on the right side of history.
I would also like to point out that I have a twenty-year experience of being slapped with libel and court cases for my publishing work. The first libel case instituted against my journalistic work was exactly twenty years ago with a libel case instituted by the hunters’ organisation, FKNK. This is the first time in my twenty-one year history of publishing and journalism that I have been found guilty of defamation.
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Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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