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Criminal libel proceedings against Sunday Times editor
Accusing me of blackmailing people to give me adverts is a very serious accusation that I will not take lightly, says MediaToday Managing Editor Saviour Balzan.
Saviour Balzan, as Managing Editor of MediaToday, instituted criminal libel proceedings today against Mr Steve Mallia, as editor of The Sunday Times.
Mr Mallia chose to dedicate a scathing editorial against MaltaToday in last Sunday’s issue of The Sunday Times.
In his editorial Steve Mallia accused Saviour Balzan of targeting clients in his opinion column after they had refused to advertise.
In his comment Balzan said: “Mr Mallia declaration of war against MaltaToday comes after we carried a story about a junior journalist who was sacked after posting an innocuous comment on Facebook before the ‘wanker’ university accident.
“Mallia accused me of several things, most significantly that we target people because of their refusal not to give us adverts. This accusation is not only a very serious one, it is tantamount to accusing me of blackmail to obtain adverts.”
Balzan said he had given Mallia the chance to retract his comment and apologise. Instead all he got was a reply that he could write a letter.
Balzan also said that he had written a reply to many of Mr Mallia’s accusations replying one by one to many of Mallia’s incorrect statements and untruths.
“I am also surprised that he chose to divulge a personal communication to Dr Mario de Marco, a member on the Strickland foundation and a junior minister and someone close to the administration at The Times and Managing Director Adrian Hillman over comments by blogger and apologist Andrew Borg Cardona related to my late wife.
“I spoke to Mario de Marco because his family had been targeted by the same blogger who works in tandem with Andrew Borg Cardona. Borg Cardona had simply repeated what that blogger had said on his blog in the Times on line site.”
Balzan added, “The Sunday Times’ invective coincides with the present campaign against MaltaToday, driven by the concern that we have eaten into The Times, its readership and that we continue to run stories that the Times buries, and which the government simply does not want us to run.
“This is all about threatened commercial interests and readership ratings. We will be celebrating 12 years of MaltaToday next month, so it is rather gratifying to see such a reaction from The Times.”
The police report was filed this morning by Dr Charmaine Galea and presented with urgency to Inspector Micallef Grimaud. The report calls on the police to proceed against Steve Mallia according to Article 252 (1) and (3) of Chapter 9 and Article 11 of Chapter 248.
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The TOM is one of the most subtle forms of non-independent press. It has had a hidden agenda for decades. Together with certain "independent' presenters on TVM, it poses a serious treat to media democracy in our country.
We now live in a state controlled society where everything we say or do is obviously being used to monitor people. The divide between the party in government and the government is completely obscured. As soon as a criticism is uttered, we have an army of loyalistsn that come out in an orchestrated campaign.
One of the main reasons why a change in administration is reqiured is that we now have character assassinations by media, spins by media and orchestrated campaigns on the media.
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I do not bother to purchase and access PN / Curia Times. Reminds me of a glorified comic, tHe Beano!
Adrian Busuttil •
Personally I love "The Times"
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Strong, soft, and thoroughly absorbent.
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I, too, stopped commenting in the Times on line because certain of my criticism of Government were not published. I stopped buying the Times years ago in favour of Malta Today, and i urge others to do likewise. Like most of you out there i have an intelligent mind and can judge what is biased and what is not. The Times is fervently biased and i do not need their warped opinion to decide what to like and what to dislike.
Paul Sammut •
The days when The Times and The Sunday Times were 'the paper' are long gone. Nowadays, people take them for what they are worth, tissue paper.
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I used to post comments on 'the times' on line, but when I noticed that whenever I lightly critisced GonziPN, my comments didn't ever appear, I stopped watching it on line. There are alot of idiots who write in 'The Times' almost daily, with their only intention of taking us in the 80's, so that they try to divert our attention from what is happeneing right now over here. I wonder if these 'people' suffer from dimentia, cause the 60's were worst that the 80's, but since they have a hidden agenda, they don't mention anything about those mediaeval times. No need to mention names, it's just a waste of time, and that's why I ignore them completely, and I hope that's what others should do, always according to my humble opinion!
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The times - small t is intended - is not only losing readership to Maltatoday, intelligent readers have realised that the times is nothing more than an extension of the PN and are pissed off with the blatant PN propoganda from therein. Also the times, frankly, has become such a boring rag. I niether read it's paper version (even when I am given a free copy), nor it's on-line version any more, for the aforementioned reasons.
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Iused to buy the Times of Malta before, not enemore. To know the truth what is going on the island, you have to buy the only paper. MALTA TODAY
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Iused to buy the Times of Malta before, not enemore. To know the truth what is going on the island, you have to buy the only paper. MALTA TODAY
Priscilla Darmenia •
In my opinion it is better for the editor of The Times to act impartial and independent in politics.
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Once upon a time The Times was renowned for its accurate news and independence.
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I noticed this many many months ago that whenever I wrote a comment on an article and the comment was against the GonziPN government, the supposed to be impartial editor censored my contribution and did not publish it.
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For what is worth, I stopped buying The Times a couple of years back. I wish that others, who feel irritated with The Times, would also stop buying it as a silent protest vote.
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