Prison director issues apology over faux-pas on journalists' threats

Prison director Alex Dalli said on Wednesday that the greatest threat faced by journalists is ‘spraining an ankle’ or ‘getting a shock’ while plugging in a computer  

Prison Director Alex Dalli
Prison Director Alex Dalli

Prison director Alex Dalli has issued an apology over comments made about journalists on a Wednesday evening programme on the national broadcaster.

Interviewed on TVM's L-Erbgha Fost il-Gimgha, Dalli was speaking on the day-to-day runnings of the correctional facility.

In an attempt to outline the dangers faced by prison guards, Dalli compared their work to journalists’.

“The greatest danger in your life as a journalist is that you might sprain your ankle while walking down a step or get a shock while turning on the computer,” he said.

On 16 October 2017, journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered outside her Bidnija home with a bomb implanted in her car.

Issuing an apology, the Prison Director said the comment was not made with any wrong intent.

“When I was explaining the hard work faced by workers at the Corradino Correctional Facility, I might have used an analogy that might be interpreted as some sort of disrespect to the work and the risks faced by journalists,” he said.

He went on to say that acceptance of the invitation to be interviewed on the programme, and the introduction of a protocol for journalists at the CCF, is evidence of his respect towards journalists, one of the main pillars of democracy.

A copy of the statement has been sent to the Institute of Maltese Journalists.

Nationalist leader Bernard Grech had earlier slammed Dalli for the derogatory comment.

"The Prime Minister needs to disassociate himself from the prison director, or else be complicit in this irresponsible declaration,” Grech said.