Agreement reached in libel suit: Media Today vs Daphne Caruana Galizia

Media Today Ltd, publishers of the newspaper Malta Today, and I have reached agreement on the settlement of the above civil suit for libel. The following declaration is published in full as received from Media Today’s legal counsel, Dr Veronique Dalli.

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I refer to my blog post entitled ‘So are Saviour and Roger baling out to Labour?’ published on the 6th of February 2013, in which I state the following:

“The word about town right now is that Saviour Balzan and Roger de Giorgio have entered into a private agreement with the General Workers Union for the sale of their newspapers to that organisation after the 9 of March general election”.

I confirm that this statement is factually incorrect and that Saviour Balzan and Roger de Giorgio have never entered or intended to enter into a private agreement of this nature.

It was not my intention to damage or harm Saviour Balzan’s or Roger de Giorgio’s reputation, and I apologise unreservedly for any inconvenience and/or harm that I may have caused to them by this article.

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What follows now is not part of the declaration. I completely agree with the proposals put forward by the Institute of Maltese Journalists for some kind of forum in which these matters can be settled before going to court. Years, man-hours and money are wasted in court when sometimes all it takes is a telephone call asking for a correction or setting the record straight, and if the telephone call doesn’t work, then sitting round a table and having a civil discussion can usually sort it out.

If the justice authorities don’t get their act together and constitute the proper forum for this, then lawyers for the parties involved might usefully consider negotiating before the matter reaches court. I generally find that a simple request or conversation does the trick where there is no bad faith. Where there is bad faith or malicious intent, little can be done, and then, yes, it has to go to court. But in my experience, mistakes that are made genuinely are also corrected genuinely. There simply has to be the proper forum for this.