Yesterday, Saviour Balzan threatened an independent journalist with a court case for exposing his chats with Yorgen Fenech. Saviour Balzan gave PR services to Yorgen Fenech in 2019 after it was revealed that Fenech was the owner of 17 Black – the company used to transfer bribes for the Electrogas project. Saviour Balzan helped Yorgen Fenech write his press release attacking back-then Nationalist MP David Thake.
I had in my possession Saviour Balzan’s chats with Yorgen Fenech a couple of months ago already, and I had even asked him about these chats. I remember trying to contact him but he wouldn’t pick up the phone, so I spoke to one of his editors to whom I forwarded the chats. Following my solicitation, Saviour Balzan proceeded to file a case against me in court alleging that I was blackmailing him.
I was a bit shocked and surprised. This person was supposedly a friend of mine and never at any point in my life had I ever blackmailed him or anyone else for the matter. He also knows that I admired him deeply for creating an independent newspaper headed by an independent editor Matthew Vella (now resigned) and I was only genuinely asking him about the chats and his role in helping Yorgen Fenech with his PR. Eventually, I got hold of him. We spoke in very amicable terms, and he admitted that he did PR work for Yorgen Fenech just like any businessman would have offered services to Yorgen Fenech. He proceeded to tell me that he regretted it and that he, like many others, felt betrayed by Joseph Muscat. He then proceeded to withdraw the case after I told him I wasn’t going to publish the chats because I don’t think they were of any concern and I empathised with him about feeling betrayed given that, I like him, was also a sucker who got betrayed.
Following our phone call, Saviour Balzan published a scathing attack on Jason Azzopardi, the previous Nationalist MP and lawyer to the Caruana Galizia family in the case of Daphne’s murder. Balzan attacked Jason Azzopardi accusing him of leaking his chats and blackmailing him. This was very unusual and it made me feel very uncomfortable. Jason Azzopardi was not the source of the chats and I had received them from a completely different person. I was uncomfortable because this was supposedly an owner of an independent newspaper attacking a source who supposedly had done a great public service by handing these chats to journalists. Such a bullish attack surely doesn’t help people come forward with information and most probably Saviour’s intention with his article was to make people afraid of him. It was very inappropriate and Saviour’s behavior was more like that of a criminal bully who has something to hide instead of someone running an independent press organisation.
I didn’t confront him about it and I took it lightly. An old man being angry for nothing. I preferred to keep my friendship. Also, full disclosure this is someone with whom I could do business with and occasionally I did, such as when he bought my NFT and ebook. Saviour Balzan is a major gatekeeper in the Maltese press industry for public funds so if you are working in the Maltese press industry, it is better to have him as a friend.
Being a sucker once may be excusable, but doing the same mistake again and doing even worse wouldn’t be consistent with your story about being a betrayed sucker. From Saviour Balzan’s opinion piece last Sunday, this is what he said about Robert Abela after his fraudulent attack on the judiciary:
Saviour wants us to believe that he is a sucker once again, yet this doesn’t add up with how he helped Robert Abela conjure his fraud against the judiciary in order to attempt to shift public anger away from him. MaltaToday was the first newspaper that broke out the fake news that the magistrate had asked for an extension of the public inquiry and repeated this lie in several other articles. MaltaToday did not check the veracity of this news, but this was probably intentional. Kurt Sansone, MaltaToday’s editor had previously just made a very ingratiating interview with Robert Abela as part of Abela’s campaign for damage control.
In the same week, Robert Abela held a public meeting yet with another pseudo-interview by a MaltaToday journalist. I don’t blame the journalist who was probably naive in thinking that given this was probably the only chance he had to interview the Prime Minister, he wouldn’t miss the chance, only that the journalist was bullied by the crowd with occasional booing as the Prime Minister spent a 45-minute monologue regurgitating his untruthful talking points and lies. The meeting was then used by Robert Abela to confirm who amongst Labour MPs and delegates are supporting him. Meanwhile, MaltaToday regularly publishes ingratiating editorials with the latest being an editorial on how Energy Minister Miriam Dalli “needs to step up” after many parts of Malta have been left without electricity for days on end. Imagine being an independent newspaper and you ask a Minister who is responsible for criminal negligence and leaving the country without electricity in the middle of a heatwave and instead of asking for her resignation, you ask her to please, step up.
There’s a big difference between being a protagonist in politics and doing journalism, yet there is nothing wrong as long as you disclose this. The problem is that Saviour Balzan pretends that he is doing independent journalism when in actual fact, MaltaToday is a prop for the government. Let’s be very clear. Last week, Saviour Balzan was an active participant in a fraudulent campaign by the government to attack the judiciary and lie to the whole nation about the magistrate not doing her job. To a certain extent, MaltaToday was very successful in delivering Robert Abela’s fraudulent message to its supporters and this is how they reacted on MaltaToday’s feed:
Now, I understand very well that by writing this, I will be losing a friend and someone with whom I could potentially do business, apart from losing his access to his gatekeeping. However, I feel a sense of obligation in covering my stories and my investigations correctly and without bias and prejudice. It is in the public interest that it is known that MaltaToday is anything but an independent newspaper. MaltaToday depends on government funds for its existence and the government’s funding for MaltaToday comes with the strict obligation for the newspaper to show respect to the government and carry out its fake stories. It is hard to distinguish what is real and what is not in MaltaToday. Saviour Balzan is trying to keep a facade of independence by keeping independently-minded journalists on his payroll such as James Debono, but the newspaper’s editorial stance is biased towards government propaganda. This also explains why the Labour Party abandoned its plans for an English-language website – why use Labour Party funds for such a venture when you could use public funds and buy Saviour Balzan?
There is a very long story about how Saviour Balzan ended in this situation. Under the Lawrence Gonzi administration, Balzan was put in a precarious situation given that the government refused to provide him with advertising – this is the same problem that independent journalists like me face today. I am trying to address this problem by looking for private financing, but that is not what Saviour Balzan did. Back in 2009 Balzan desperately went to a government Minister and explicitly told him to buy his silence over a major investigation that MaltaToday was working on. The Minister refused his offer.
Joseph Muscat knew very well of Saviour’s situation so when Muscat entered office, he provided Saviour Balzan with the advertising he needed and continued by providing him with contracts for PR and marketing services. Today, Saviour Balzan’s companies are raking in millions of Euros of government contracts, many of which are for PR services. Apart from being able to get hold of various invoices myself that prove this, The Shift News has also covered this story extensively.
I have lost many friends thanks to this website and I am sure that Saviour Balzan will never forgive me for this, but I prefer to stick to being able to provide a clear picture of what’s actually going on. The deceit and fraud that is being conducted to defend a criminal organisation in power are also enraging, especially when our country is facing a very dark time in its history. Maybe, MaltaToday wouldn’t have been supportive of a government law that intends to clamp down on journalism if it wasn’t so pro-government, and indirectly, this situation is also harming the whole press industry. I find every good reason to call out Saviour Balzan given he is a direct participant in Malta’s transition into an illiberal democracy.
As for the chats themselves, they are important to explain how Saviour Balzan is doing business: unprincipled, mercenary, and willing to work for someone who is publicly known as a corrupt agent of the government. There is little reason to publish them, but I will publish an extract nonetheless in solidarity with anyone who has been blackmailed and bullied by Saviour over these chats. We can not be in a situation where sources and journalists are bullied by the government’s paid propagandists for doing the right thing, so this is for them.
09/06/2019 06:05:14(UTC+0)
Saviour Balzan
Gej daqt ghax qomt issa
Status: Read
Platform: Mobile
09/06/2019 06:51:44(UTC+0)
Saviour Balzan
It is not in my nature to react to media reports. However the statement made on TVM last
Friday on Xarabank by a Mr David Thake cannot go unanswered. He alleged I issued a
payment to influence the election of a particular candidate in the European Parliament
election. He accused me without any proof of an attempt to unduly influence a democratic
electoral process. I would to make it very clear and in no uncertain terms that this is a
figment of his imagination. It is in no uncertain terms and invention and a lie.
I have always tried to avoid getting involved in political bickering or public debates and I
have personally consistently respected everyone’s right to freely express themselves even
when these have included false allegations about me or my family. However this the time
when I draw a line.
I would like to invite Mr Thake to either substantiate his claims which he cannot do, as they
are the fruit of his own imagination or do the right thing and withdraw his irresponsible
statement. Failure to do so will expose his flippant and deceitful dishonesty.
Status: Read
Platform: PC
09/06/2019 07:10:40(UTC+0)
Saviour Balzan
Mela here it
Status: Read
Platform: PC
09/06/2019 07:10:46(UTC+0)
Saviour Balzan
is
Status: Read
Platform: PC
09/06/2019 07:10:48(UTC+0)
Saviour Balzan
Important lt tibghat kopji lil Reno Bugeja Head of news TVM u imbghad kopju lil Peppi
Azzopardi
Status: Read
Platform: PC
09/06/2019 07:11:20(UTC+0)
Saviour Balzan
U kopji lill Press kollu.
Status: Read
Platform: PC
09/06/2019 07:11:26(UTC+0)
Saviour Balzan
It is not in my nature to react to media reports. However the statement made on TVM last
Friday on Xarabank by a Mr David Thake cannot go unanswered. He alleged I issued a
payment to influence the election of a particular candidate in the European Parliament
election. He accused me without any proof of an attempt to unduly influence a democratic
electoral process. I would to make it very clear and in no uncertain terms that this is a
figment of his imagination. It is in no uncertain terms an invention and a lie.
I have always tried to avoid getting involved in political bickering or public debates and I
have personally consistently respected everyone’s right to freely express themselves even
when these have included false allegations about me or my family. However this the time
when I draw a line.
I would like to invite Mr Thake to either substantiate his claims which he cannot do, as they
are the fruit of his own imagination or do the right thing and withdraw his irresponsible
statement. Failure to do so will expose his flippant and deceitful dishonesty.
Status: Read
Platform: PC
09/06/2019 07:12:29(UTC+0)
Saviour Balzan
Kien hemm typo error zghir din tajba
Status: Read
Platform: PC
09/06/2019 07:12:37(UTC+0)
Saviour Balzan
Ghandek l-emejls ta’ kullhadd
Status: Read
Platform: PC
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Historian and Publisher
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