Lou Bondi sues Saviour Balzan for libel

TV presenter Lou Bondi has sued MediaToday Managing Editor Saviour Balzan for libel after Balzan described the Where's Everybody? director as "Gonzi's gatekeeper and ass-licker".

In his blog entitled 'A perfect Kasslata', Balzan writes that Bondi sped off to Brussels to attend a press conference on the OLAF report.

"We are led to believe that Bondi reacted in record time. Bullshit: the only way he could have organised himself so fast was that he was in cahoots with the administration, and they knew the whole time what was happening to John Dalli," Balzan wrote.

 In a right of reply he sent and published in MaltaToday, Bondi denied having known about the OLAF's investigation into former EU Commissioner John Dalli before this was made public.

"This is an absolute and total lie. I got to know about the investigation like all other journalists," Bondi said.

Saviour Balzan however stood by his original statement, reiterating that Bondi "was not only close to the PN administration but that he also promoted their agenda, picked and chose subjects to put their opponents in bad light and more importantly, pushed a line of questioning that was engineered to demolish his opponents".

According to Balzan, Bondi could only have done this because he was privy to timing and the PN agenda.

"This was perhaps most evident in his programmes on John Dalli and later on during the oil scandal. Bondi's insistence that his State-funded programme covered every aspect of journalism is not only a big fat lie, but a sick joke," Balzan added.

"And it is my sincere belief that in the end, his programme contributed in no small way in antagonising many Nationalists against the PN, because they associated Lou Bondi with the establishment."