The Court decision by Judge Toni Abela wasn’t just legally incorrect, it was also a direct and personal attack against me and this press. Despite the fact that I have the right to appeal, I will never have the opportunity to address the vexatious claims that the Judge wrote in his sentence by quoting his friend, Saviour Balzan, and I can not undo this damage.
The Maltese Herald doesn’t make a profit: I fund this enterprise with my own money, with my own efforts and my passion for publishing. The aim of The Maltese Herald is to publish interesting and relevant news and investigations with an international perspective despite our local focus. I think we are doing a relatively good job and we are always improving.
The Maltese State is making it incredibly difficult to run this website and to do my job. The government has discriminated against me for four years before I was finally able to do some contractual work with the government in my field. I had to go to Court and present a Constitutional case to prove discrimination. Yet, this discrimination continues and the government has entities like the National Book Council who are actively undermining my work in various ways.
I don’t have the possibility to go on the State broadcaster and defend myself. While those who attack me and vilify me like Saviour Balzan can gatekeep who appears on the national broadcaster, I don’t have the possibility to participate in a debate or give an interview to the public broadcaster. The national broadcaster has produced many news features about me which were biased.
There is no financing option for me unless I opt for very high business interest rates. Liquidity and credit are basically non-existent for my type of business and risk. If it wasn’t for the world of crypto, I would have never become a publisher (although my actual of history in publishing is even older than that). Financing from conventional sources is basically zero unless you pay very high interest rates – and even these are very rare.
The Courts are now beginning to make my work difficult, as per Judge Toni Abela’s sentence. In addition to his very vindictive and personal sentence, the Civil Courts recently slapped me with libel damages and the same Court is now refusing to accept my defence in a separate case on the grounds of some technical bullshit.
I attended every Court sitting in which I was called for. I have always been respectful and very compliant. While we have to face the full consequences of the law, the corrupt politicians who challenge and bully us are provided with full protection by the State.
Throughout my Court sittings against Rosianne Cutajar, that included a vexatious lawsuit which she gave up, and a criminal case which she lost, the Labour Party’s propaganda machine ran regular stories and pieces about me which were biased. MaltaToday and Illum, co-owned by Saviour Balzan, are running a vexatious and libelous campaign against me with Saviour Balzan also publishing alleged personal details about my life as he tries to doxx me and directly threaten my security and well-being.
Adding to all of the above, the two frauds who run Joseph Muscat’s and Keith Schembri’s talking points on social media, Neville Gafa and Karl Stagno Navarra, run vexatious and libelous stories about me on a regular basis (Neville Gafa just lost two libel cases I instituted against him after he agreed to pay for the court fees and my lawyer for initiating my libel cases in pre-case mediation).
Throughout these events, I have always been respectful and very complaint with the local Courts and the local authorities. I also fulfill my work with full compliance with the law of Malta, and The Maltese Herald is also registered with the Department of Information.
Despite the great imbalance of political, media and financial power against us, we have always complied with the law, respected the local Courts and brought great respect to the Judiciary and the authorities.
We have been critical of those who run the authorities, like the Police Commissioner and the Attorney-General. Never did we abuse our position to threaten anyone, nor did we ever attack on a personal basis our adversaries who lie and spread vexatious and threatening material against us.
In addition, we have also been very supportive of the authorities in their work in their fight against corruption. We also occasionally share intelligence with the authorities on matters of terrorism and cross-border financial crime and we are happy to continue to do so as part of our national obligations.
Considering all of the above, one has to appreciate that our press is a very tough gig to pull off. We do what we do out of simple love for our country and nation. There are many other pursuits in life which are more highly financially rewarding.
We can pull this off because despite the massive challenges, we are very sophisticated operators. Our readers should be aware that we are complying with Maltese law, respecting the Judiciary, and fulfilling our legal obligations not because we are forced to or because we are compelled to, but simply because we support the Maltese State, and the rule-of-law.
At the same time, there are options that we also consider and plan for our safety, security and long-term survival including the “Wikileak option”. These are just options and theoretical plans and not actual intentions, but they can be easily activated if we are pressed too far and our work is threatened. Very simply, I also have the capability to move to a country with no extradition treaties with Malta, move the website into servers that are outside the reach of any authority, and basically fulfill all of this in just under 24-hours. I also have many friends who would support me in this. In such a situation, the Courts would have no possibility to send letters about our publications, but even if they do, the result would be nothing more than silence from my end.
We comply with the law because we believe in it, and not because we are compelled to. We are already in a difficult and very unfair position, and those who are trying to attack and damage our work with their decisions, shouldn’t be trying to push us into a corner thinking that we don’t have any options when pressed hard enough.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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