Cap. 579 Art. 11Assessment by the Court.

(1) In assessing the sum being awarded under this Act in an action for defamation, the Court shall take into account:

(a) the gravity and extent of the defamation or the extent to which the defamation is likely to injure the reputation of the plaintiff;

(b) whether the defendant exercised due diligence before publishing the defamatory matter;

(c) whether the defendant made or offered to make an apology to the plaintiff or to publish a clarification to the satisfaction of the plaintiff before the action or as soon afterwards as the defendant had an opportunity of doing so in case of commencement of the action before there was an opportunity of making or offering such apology or clarification.

(2) Should the defendant have, prior to the commencement of the proceedings, apologised and published an unreserved correction with the same importance as the original publication or published a reply submitted by the plaintiff with the same importance as the original publication, then the Court shall not award in moral damages an amount in excess of five thousand euro (€5,000).

(3) It shall be lawful to take action in respect of each and every imputation in the same case and the persons concerned in the libel may be sued either jointly or severally:

Provided that the amount of moral damages recoverable in regard to the same case shall not exceed eleven thousand, six hundred and forty euro (€11,640).

(4) In assessing the sum to be awarded in an action for defamation the Court shall also in such manner as it may consider appropriate in the interests of proportionality, take into account the economic capacity of the defendant and the impact which the payment of the sum to be awarded is likely to have on the newspaper, broadcaster, website, journalist or other media actor.