Altercation between Peter Fenech and Saviour Balzan in court

Plaintiff Peter Fenech stepped into his lawyer's shoes in a defamation suit against MaltaToday managing editor Saviour Balzan, ordering the defendant to answer questions put to him.

Balzan told the court since he had been sued for defamation as a director, and not as an editor, he would “reply as a director”.

At one point Fenech, Balzan and the defendant’s lawyer Toni Abela were involved in a heated altercation in the courtroom.

While Fenech accused Balzan of “having destroyed [him]”, Balzan retorted that he would be willing to support Fenech “if [he] has become so destitute.”

“However I cannot imagine how I destroyed you with the privileges you enjoyed in the previous 12 years,” Balzan said of Fenech, a one-time canvasser of Nationalist minister Louis Galea and a political appointee on several government boards.

Fenech has sued for libel over a MaltaToday report on the election for the presidency of the Malta Football Association between Peter Fenech and Norman Darmanin Demajo.

But Fenech sued Balzan as director of the company that owns maltatoday.com.mt

Asked if he was responsible for the contents of the website, Balzan answered that he was answering the lawsuit as a director, and not the sole shareholder in a company that owned the website.

“The press registrar does not oblige anyone to be an editor of a website. You of all people should know what a director is responsible for - you were involved in a company and shunned all responsibility in the Jumbo Lido affair,” Balzan said referring to another story on which Fenech had sued MaltaToday for libel.

Asked who was responsible for the website on the day the story was uploaded, Balzan said various journalists had the responsibility to upload stories.

At this point, Fenech called on the magistrate to remind the defendant that he was under oath.  Balzan said that he was not lying, pointing out the MaltaToday journalist in the courtroom: “See that MaltaToday journalist there? He is uploading a story as we speak. I am not telling him what to do. Digital media is very different.”

Peter Fenech was represented by lawyer Joe Zammit Maempel. The case, which is being heard the court of Magistrate Franco Depasquale, continues on the 6 October.