editorial


ToonToday: With apologies to Vince Farrugia

A disgraced Police commissioner and an embarrassed government

In the height of Summer this newspaper revealed that a senior police officer was facing magisterial investigations related to allegations of sexual abuse. Going by history, we expected to be fried over our endeavour to talk about the private lives of people.

But we were not perturbed; in the past political bigots of every colour and hue have attempted to redesign what is ethical and not ethical.

For example was it ethical to write about Alfred Sant’s separation proceedings?

Was it ethical to leak information about resignations?

Is it ethical to have journalists act like morons and mercenaries?

Is it ethical to portray the sexual exploits of a press secretary for a political party?

Is it ethical to reveal that a key defendant in a case is suffering from MS?

We have seen how ‘ethics’ governs our counterparts and interlocutors.

The Home Affairs minister suggested that he did not know anything about the inquiry, which sounds rich considering that so many in the media knew.

Worse still, most of the media chose not to explore the facts. They were obviously channelled by their allegiances and their problems when it came to treating the subject of George Grech.

That Kullhadd and Super One did so, for obvious reasons, but they will not dare look into stories which concern police folk with a labour tinge such as Lawrence Pullicino.

When we did move into these troubled waters we were faced with a vehement reaction from a number of journalists who felt that we had taken things too far.

It did not stop there; we were accused of being used and linked to drug cartels.

But the best part surfaced on a Sunday, when the Commissioner of Police faced with a plethora of accusations spoke on Radio 101 and stated that he had no relationship whatsoever with Polish woman Isabelle Azzopardi.

He castigated this newspaper for inventing and seeking to stop him because of his success against the criminal world.

Today, we are told that the Commissioner is admitting that he had a long relationship with this Polish woman. Isabelle Azzopardi denies this and the Commissioner did so weeks before. And did the Commissioner also have a sexual relationship with Isabelle Azzopardi’s mother, Kazimiera Basaraba?

He has already proven in Bill Clinton style that he lied when he said one thing on Radio 101 and another thing in the courts.

But then when we linked his role as head of the security service we were picked upon by the Prime Minister and the Nationalist media for our actions.

We alleged that the Police Commissioner used his powers as Police Commissioner and Head of the Security Services in relation to this case.

Mr Grech has denied this.

Yes, we too are not too happy with the choice of magistrate. But when this newspaper faced the court’s wrath, because of people like Mr Grech, we did not cry wolf and declare that a magistrate or judge was such and such. We simply faced the music.

There are a number of questions which cannot go unanswered.

Why was Mr George Grech, who was the subject of investigation by a magistrate, not asked to resign? If, as Mr Grech has insinuated, there are problems with the integrity of the judiciary, surely this cannot be blamed on the media, and surely not on the author of this leader who has relentlessly hit out at sections of the judiciary. Proving their links to business and in one case to freemasonry.

There is no way we can see Mr Grech back in the corps - not now or ever.

The Islamic world

Islamic Public Opinion is coagulating in force to voice its anger at the US bombings. This contrasts with the views of their leaders.

The show of confraternity from leaders of the Arab world means zilch. Most of the leaders in these countries are despots, unelected rulers, dictators or monarchs. They rule by unleashing their security forces on their poor people. Their opponents, like them, are extreme, unrelenting and cruel.

To the vast majority of Moslems, Osama Bin Laden is their hero. The actions in Afghanistan fitted in nicely with Osama’s plan.

Proof of the precision bombing and round the clock announcements that the Taliban are being destroyed will only fuel more hatred.

The Americans and allies are obviously alien to all this. It is so typical.