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Karl Schembri
An e-mail sent by the Prime Minister’s Communications Co-ordinator to the editor of The Malta Independent on Sunday reveals his indignation at questions, sent to him by a journalist from the newspaper’s newsroom, about the government’s economic advisors. (Click to see email)
In a terse message sent to editor Fr Noel Grima last Monday and leaked to this newspaper, the PM’s Co-ordinator Alan Camilleri expressed his outrage at The Malta Independent journalist for following up a story published in MaltaToday.
“Now this journalist is following up stories by another journalist from MaltaToday to revel (naghmlu xalata) on The Independent on Sunday or the Business Weekly!!!,” Camilleri wrote.
Charlot Zahra, a journalist who works at The Malta Independent and Business Weekly, had sent an e-mail earlier asking Camilleri for the names of the experts that were giving advice to the government against the devaluation of the Lira, in view of other economists’ opinion in favour of the measure proposed by Opposition Leader Alfred Sant.
Last Sunday, MaltaToday had carried a story focusing on the different viewpoints of economic experts on the matter.
Lawrence Gonzi’s communications Co-ordinator, Alan Camilleri reacted to Zahra’s request for comment by forwarding the journalist’s questions back to his editor with a note of clear contempt.
“Look at the questions I’m getting from your journalists,” he wrote in the two-sentence e-mail.
“Are they by any chance the future editors of Maltastar,” he added, referring to the Labour party news website.
The message was sent by Camilleri from his office e-mail address with his signature as the Prime Minister’s communications co-ordinator.
His reference to maltastar.com seems to be triggered by a story on MaltaToday last month which reported that Labour leader Alfred Sant was headhunting for a website editor from the Independent newsroom.
Attempts made to contact Camilleri directly and through the Department of Information yesterday proved futile. Messages left on his mobile phone remained unreturned.
The journalist derided by Camilleri happens to be the winner of this year’s Journalists’ Award for internet journalism as well as a member of the council of the Malta Institute of Journalists.
This is not the first time Camilleri - who only considers replying to questions sent to him in writing by e-mail - has refused to answer journalists’ questions.
On previous occasions he took MaltaToday journalists to task for questions he somehow deemed to be hostile to the government.
Since Gonzi took over as Prime Minister, Camilleri has centralised government communication through the Department of Information, requesting every ministry and government department to communicate with journalists only through official government statements vetted by the Office of the Prime Minister.
Last month, the government organised a secret pre-budget briefing for a handful of journalists it considers to be on its good books, excluding MaltaToday and other media houses.
Meanwhile, Malta’s Permanent Representative to the EU and the only unelected Cabinet member, Richard Cachia Caruana, persists in his refusal to grant an interview to MaltaToday.
karl@newsworksltd.com
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