Pia Zammit an actress and occupy justice activist has had her 2019 libel suit against newspaper "It-Torċa" thrown out by a local magistrate.
The suit was originally started because the newspaper used a picture of Pia on the set of "Allo Allo!" a satirical theatre production about the 2nd world war in order to characterize her as a nazi sympathizer.
The magistrate based her ruling on the facts that there was no offensive or defamatory language used in the article and that the context of the photograph was made known and that "serious harm" to Zammit’s reputation was not observable.
The court stated: “could not be seen as anything but expressions of opinion about the facts in the photograph,”
Despite this the Malta entertainments industry and Arts Association viewed this ruling as "deeply concerning" and stated that:
"If courts of law are unable to differentiate between the performer and the characters they play, then today we have established a dangerous and serious precedent that threatens the work of performing artists and freedom of creative expression,"
What do you make of this judgement? Let us know!