Cap. 248 Art. 21Right of reply.

(1) Any person whose actions or intentions have been misrepresented or who has been subjected to an attack on his honour, dignity or reputation, or to an intrusion into his private life by means of or in a newspaper or in any broadcast shall be entitled to demand and to have published forthwith, free of charge, in the same newspaper or on the same broadcasting medium, as the case may require, a statement by way of contradiction or explanation: Provided that this article shall not apply where the misrepresentation occurs in a broadcast of a political nature which is part of a scheme approved by the Broadcasting Authority if the misrepresentation may be contradicted or explained in another broadcast which is part of the same scheme either by the person whose actions or intentions have been misrepresented or by another person entitled to take part in such other broadcast in representation of the party to which the person whose actions or intentions have been misrepresented belongs:

Provided further that no person shall be required to publish a statement by way of contradiction or explanation which is shall be published as a separate article and without being interpolated with any comments or other material that does not form part of the reply, with equal prominence as the publication in respect of which the right of reply is exercised and it shall not be lawful to shorten or edit the reply in such a manner as to prejudice the effective exercise of the right of reply under this article. The said statement shall be published not later than the second issue of the newspaper following the receipt of the request: Provided that when the right of reply is availed of in respect of a publication in a newspaper published at intervals of at least one week, the said statement shall be published in the issue immediately following the receipt of the request if such request is received at least four days before the publication of the said issue and not later than the second issue following the receipt of the request in all other cases.

(3) In the case of a broadcast, a statement in terms of subarticle

(1) shall be broadcast not later than the second day following that on which the request is received; it shall be broadcast in a way and at the time that it reaches as much as possible the same audience and with the same prominence, and the time allowed shall be a time which is twice the time of the broadcast or part of the broadcast complained of but which is not less than ninety seconds and not more than one hundred and eighty seconds.

(4) An editor of a newspaper or the manager or other person responsible for the broadcasting medium who neglects to comply with any of the foregoing provisions of this article shall be liable on conviction to a fine (multa) of a minimum of four hundred and sixty-five euro and eighty-seven cents (465.87) and in the case of such conviction the court shall in its judgement make such orders upon the party convicted as it deems appropriate as to ensure respect of the right of reply granted by this article. In default of compliance with any such order the party convicted shall be liable t o pay the complainant a penalty not exceeding one thousand and one hundred and sixty-four euro and sixty-nine cents (1,164.69) which shall be enforceable by the same court.

(5) The publication of any statement as required by this article or any punishment thereunder shall not be a bar to the exercise of any other action under this Act.

(6) This article shall not apply to any publication mentioned in article 33 in cases where no action lies under that article in respect of such publication.

(7) The right of reply under this article shall lapse if the person demanding such right shall not have claimed it within one month from the date of the publication of the newspaper or of the broadcast in respect of which the said right may be exercised. such Code or other law shall apply.