Minister’s son sues One News for defamation

Updated with correction at 9:45am, 3 February.

Gege Gatt, the son of transport minister Austin Gatt, has sued Labour's One Radio for defamation over a news item alleging Gatt will use his IT firms to launch media attacks against Opposition leader Joseph Muscat.

Gatt, whose father will be coordinating the PN's forthcoming electoral campaign, said the 20 January news item on One Radio was defamatory in his regard and asked the courts to order the radio station to pay damages for the content of its broadcast.

In the news item, One Radio alleged Gatt's role in the electoral campaign would be "to coordinate the attacks against Joseph Muscat and the Labour party through the internet."

Gatt, an IT specialist and lawyer by profession, has already been touted as the person who will manage the party's social media for the electoral campaign.

But the One News item went further in stating that Gatt's firms Icon, a web development company, and Muovo, a specialist IT recruitment firm, had been "beneficiaries of a great deal of business in a short period of time, something that companies long established before them find hard to explain."

The news item also alleged Gatt will be using his firms' resources as part of the PN's electoral campaign "as a platform of attack against Joseph Muscat and Labour on the internet."

One News also said PN sources reported Gatt as part of the campaign triumvirate that include his father Austin Gatt, former PN secretary-general Joe Saliba, and Permanent Representative to the EU Richard Cachia Caruana.

One News added that Gatt was also being pushed to replace Paul Borg Olivier as secretary-general of the PN.