local news

Media cooks up fantasia plot

Meinrad Calleja has now become the perfect voodoo doll in times of crisis for some sections of the pro-government press.

And in an endeavour to award Escobar status to the accused drug trafficker from Swieqi, last Sunday’s il-Mument carried a story saying British security had cautioned the Maltese government and called for greater security for Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami’s visit to London in 1995 simply because of Calleja.

The insinuation in the article was that the Prime Minister’s life was in danger because of Meinrad Calleja. The accusation would otherwise be considered as influencing the course of justice, since Mr Calleja is expected to be tried in relation to the attempted murder of Richard Cachia Caruana, the Prime Minister’s personal assistant.

But when MaltaToday asked a British High Commission official about the security advice from British security for Dr Fenech Adami’s visit in 1995, the answer was: "We certainly do not have that type of information at the High Commission in Malta and it is highly unlikely that the British Foreign Office would divulge any information of the sort to the press."

Direct telephone conversations with security spokesmen in London also confirmed that there was no way the Maltese press would be informed of such a development.

Security for foreign dignitaries to London is organised by the Foreign and Commonwealth office and at the time Dr Fenech Adami’s trip was considered to be a routine visit.

This is not the first the Maltese press have liberally quoted foreign sources with further investigation proving that the stories were more spin than fact.

Unlike Maltese police, foreign police and security forces do not distinguish between pro-government, independent and opposition newspapers. For them the press is the press.