Reporting Bogdanovic’s police bail release was not irresponsible

When MaltaToday reported on the Daniel Bogdanovic arrest, the story angle was cleary based on the fact that the former Malta national team footballer had been granted bail ahead of a 3pm Sunday kick-off – when the arresting officer had previously alerted the duty magistrate she would be arraigning him under arrest on Monday morning.

A decision by Magistrate Joe Mifsud – a former Labour Party journalist whose knowledge of the media is therefore not in dispute – today berates MaltaToday’s report, confusing the reason for which the story was published in the first place.

The Bogdanovich arrest was not sensational because of the domestic violence incident; it had to be reported because the release from arrest happened after police top brass in Malta took interest in the case and enquired with the police in Gozo on the arrest of the footballer.

READ The Bogdanovic inquiry shows a police force wedded to men of influence

Magistrate Mifsud claims the reports were “built on fantasy”, when the same inquiry led by retired Brigadier Carmel Vassallo, confirmed all the details reported in MaltaToday: that Bogdanovich had been released from arrest earlier than when it was scheduled to happen as agreed with Magistrate Joanne Vella Cuschieri; that Assistant Commissioner Carmelo Magri had inquired about the arrest with arresting officer Edel Mary Camilleri; he had himself been previously contacted by the Xewkija Tigers coach Jesmond Zammit (who is an aide to parliamentary secretary Ian Borg); and that Camilleri consented to the release after her own superior, Superintendent Antonello Grech.

That Sunday morning of his release, a conversation ensued between Superintendent Antonello Grech and Edel Mary Camilleri, a conversation she said that “sounded like a warning”. The testimonies of the police officers have not been published, but it is stated that Grech suggested that keeping Bogdanovic under arrest would be “against the spirit of the law” since Camilleri had already seized the weapons, ensured the safety of the victims, and was only waiting for the police offices to re-open on Monday.

Magistrate Joe Mifsud insists on calling these reports “speculative” and wonders why journalists did not attend the court sitting. The heart of the matter was not the domestic violence incident: it was the unorthodox release from arrest.

Take Carmel Vassallo’s own conclusion in his inquiry: he was clear that doubts lingered on the fact that Bogdanovic had to play Kercem that same Sunday afternoon. “It could be that the telephone calls from AC Magri and particularly the conversation she had with her superintendent, brought the inspector to decide on police bail. The lack of sensitivity in this decision is present, without doubt.”

In quoting the Supreme Court’s Lord Neuberger, where he says that the press’s power “comes the degree of responsibility” or suggesting, by way of quoting Lord Diplock that the newspaper relied on “intuition instead of reasoning, leap to conclusions on inadequate evidence” totally ignores the fact that MaltaToday had ascertained the facts of the matter before and throughout the entire series of reports.

It is understandable that the personal domestic matter at stake means that the publication of the details of incident – which were actually published by the police in their public statement before MaltaToday’s story – was not a welcome development for the family.

But in a year where the present government is upping its fight against domestic violence, the release on police bail of an alleged perpetrator, ostensibly on the concern of his football team coach and the interest of a police official in Malta, was a serious matter that demanded journalistic examination.

Even Carmel Vassallo noted the arresting officer’s investigation was not entirely complete and that Bogdanovic did not have to be released automatically: “The seriousness of the case and the sensitivity necessary in treating domestic violence demand caution. The Inspector felt that the Superintendent’s speech that Sunday morning sounded like a warning.”

“So it made no sense in giving him police bail,” Vassallo pointed out, “if such a serious threat as [Bogdanovic] made also necessitated issuing a protection order. In these circumstances, the choice had to be either police bail and a notification to appear in court, or to keep him under arrest as agreed with the magistrate, 37 hours later on Monday morning.”

It was with that in mind that MaltaToday chose not to report on the domestic violence case itself, for the personal affairs of the Bogdanovic family did not need any more airing.

Whether Magistrate Joe Mifsud is capable to understand this fundamental difference in journalistic interest, is up to him. He makes no reference to the Bogdanovich inquiry at all in his decision, looking askance at the role of the media when it comes to the rule of law in this country.