Smart City forum organiser to pay €6,000 after losing libel case

Martin Vella, tasked with the organisation of a networking forum at Smart City four years ago, and who is also a former editor of two business magazines, was ordered to pay €6,000 in libel over two emails.

The reparations are to be paid to Anthony Micallef, owner of a private business dealing with office equipment and former president of the Maltese-Libyan Chamber of Commerce.

Micallef who had been turned away as a guest speaker and branded ‘persona non grata’, filed two libel suits against Vella.

The conflict between the two began when Vella allegedly pulled out of a purchase of a printer from Micallef’s company. Allegedly, seeking revenge, Micallef seemingly did not pay for an interview and adverts that were published in the Economic Update.

Vella then retorted back, and made sure that Micallef would be struck off the speaker’s list for the ‘Malta-Tunisia-Libya B2B Networking Forum 2014’. Vella sent his first email to Micallef, copying in third parties including the Tunisian ambassador and high-ranking members of the police corps. In the email Vella stated that Micallef was “persona non grata”, an “undesirable or unwanted” person. This email was the subject of the first libel suit.

The second libel suit is due to the second email to the Tunisian ambassador, where Vella pursued in justifying his earlier email calling Micallef “a negative, destructive and obstinate person” who had refused a “handshake” in the past.

The Tunisian embassy then tried to make amends by formally inviting Micallef; however, Vella made sure to keep the guest speaker away. Indeed, neither Micallef nor any representative from the Maltese-Libyan Chamber of Commerce had attended the event.

In his defence, Vella claimed that the decision to declare Vella “persona non grata” was taken with the organising committee too.

Nevertheless, the court, presided over by Magistrate Francesco Depasquale, concluded that Vella’s intention in the emails were clear: “to harm the applicant by defaming him and tarnishing his reputation with third parties including the Tunisian ambassador and highranking members of the police corps.”

The court decided that the emails were defamatory and ordered Vella to pay €4,000 and €2,000 in respect of the two cases.