PN journalist 'crossed the line' - court

A Nationalist Party journalist was yesterday found guilty of libelling Speaker Anġlu Farrugia through an article penned 14 years ago and was ordered to pay him €600 in damages. Dione Borg and former editor Joe Zahra were found guilty of libel through a story published in the PN's newspaper In-Nazzjon on August 10, 2000. The story was based on an anonymous letter which the newspaper had received and which alleged that Dr Farrugia and now-President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca were working to out-seat Alfred Sant, then leader of the Labour Party. Madam Justice Lorraine Schembri Orland ruled that Mr Borg had crossed the line when he did not investigate the contents of the letter, not even to establish the veracity of what was being alleged.