Earlier this week, a young PN politician smeared me on Facebook with very libelous and serious claims saying that I am paid a salary by the government in addition to having, according to him, harassed Daphne Caruana Galizia on a daily basis when she was alive and I was with Labour. I couldn’t believe these lies when I read them.
The defamatory statements were published in response to my articles about Eve Borg Bonnello and Alex Borg and the PN politician who published the statements also vehemently defended these two politicians. Ironically, the post was also liked by Adrian Delia who based his leadership campaign for the Nationalist Party leadership on a platform against Daphne Caruana Galizia.
The statements were deleted and a halfhearted apology was issued. I’m giving the young PN politician the benefit of the doubt, so for now I’ll stick to the above basic points.
For the record I don’t receive a salary from the government and neither do I receive any government funds for my journalism. I apply competitively with other publishers for official and public funds for non-profitable book publications. This I have disclosed many times. Other than that, I receive absolutely nothing from the government as it pumps millions of Euros in funds to propagandists like Saviour Balzan.
The only time this year when I was smeared was by Saviour Balzan: a government funded millionaire who bullied me and smeared me in public for having exposed his lies and relationship with Yorgen Fenech. The last time I was smeared was by Rosianne Cutajar who opened two vexatious cases against me in Court which she lost.
I took a deep offense at having been falsely accused of harassing Daphne Caruana Galizia. I’ve never harassed anyone in my life let alone Daphne Caruana Galizia. As the Executive Chairman of the National Book Council I have a very long and public track record of defending her whilst she was alive and even after her murder. I was a delegate with the Labour Party. For my positions and for speaking up, I basically lost my job and my position in the Labour Party. I basically lost my past life and everything that was tied to it, including many of my personal relationships. For me, personally, this series of events were devastating and left me deeply wounded.
I recovered my life despite the constant attacks and systematic discrimination by the Labour government. Today I am building my businesses.
I’ve been a big fan and a reader of Daphne Caruana Galizia before this young PN politician, who made the defamatory statements, was even born. My mother used to give me five cents to go to the supermarket and by the Malta Independent on Thursday which used to include a column by Daphne Caruana Galizia and a historical poster. I still have the historical posters I collected at that very young age. I remember my mother reading Daphne Caruana Galizia and that is also how I begun to learn as a very young age of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s importance.
I don’t even remember having ever crticised her. When I was a young student editor of a punk rag, we asked her for an interview with a great spirit of admiration and enthusiasm for her work. I remember Andre Vella dreaming about this prospect with great zeal as if we were going to interview our greatest hero. She refused and left us deeply disappointed. Today, I appreciate her decisions because I also refuse such kind of interviews given that I need people to read me by visiting my website and buy my books, not to mention that she didn’t take us seriously.
That was not until we were arraigned in court for publishing pornography and she came to my defense. She still mocked me and criticised me and my friends and I used to take her criticism as a sign that we were in some way relevant. It was like one of those moments that say “Never meet your heroes”.
I remained her fan since ever I can remember (she used to kill us with laughter, especially during her period when she had published the party photos of Consuelo Scerri Herrera) and I never said anything bad in her regard. I always had deep respect for her and her work. When she was murdered I was in shock. I attended the first protest by Repubblika (they weren’t even called Repubblika back then) which took place outside the Courts of Law just right after it was announced that she was murdered. I vividly remember Andrew Borg Cardona shouting that the Courts were the last remaining refuge for justice. I don’t ever remember Alex Borg to any of these events. Eve Borg Bonnello came later.
My track record in favour of free-speech and journalism is unblemished. No one can throw sticking mud at me on my track-record which is very public. I am big liberal on free speech and accept all kind of attacks, but to attack me deviously with very serious and damaging lies is deeply offensive and outright evil. I myself make many retractions when I am wrong and I am not in the business of publishing lies and propaganda. If I get it wrong, I rectify. I don’t try to butter my mistakes. For now, I will accept this halfhearted apology.
As for Saviour Balzan, I will be dealing with him come next October.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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