Reference is being made to article entitled ‘New claims of police violence’ penned by Karl Stagno Navarra and published on pages 1 and 3 of the mid-week issue of MaltaToday of 19 August 2009.
The police would like to clarify that Mr Satagno Navarra had, on 12 August 2009, sent questions via email to the Police enquiring about an alleged manhandling by the St Julian’s Police of an 18-year-old woman. In his questions, Mr Stagno Navarra stated that the woman’s family had filed a report on the case with the police and that the Internal Affairs Unit of the Force was investigating. On 14 August 2009, the Force’s CMRU replied to Mr Stagno Navarra’s informing him that no such reports were ever received and that no-one is being investigated.
Nevertheless, Mr Stagno Navarra, for reasons of his own, chose to omit our reply from his article.
With all due respect, we do not consider this to be fair reporting. The least Mr Stagno Navarra could have done was to include our reply in order to provide his readers with a balanced piece, which regretfully, was not the case with his article.
WPC 101 Roberta Grima
f/Commissioner of Police
Editor’s note: This letter is dated 19 August, and is being published under the terms of Article 21 of Chapter 248 of the Laws of Malta. However, the CMRU has since changed its version of events, and has now admitted that the alleged incident was in fact reported, and is in fact under investigation, fully confirming the MaltaToday report of 19 August.
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