Dalli presents evidence of ‘coordinated attack’ in court

Former EU Commissioner John Dalli this week submitted a declaration in court in which he substantiated his previous claims that he was the target of a coordinated media attack by the PN media, the Times of Malta, the Malta Independent and PBS when a fabricated report was used against him by former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.

In June, Dalli was summoned as a witness in a defamation case filed by Richard Cachia Caruana, the former permanent representative to the EU, against Saviour Balzan, the managing editor of MaltaToday, over the latter’s claims that Cachia Caruana was behind a dirty media campaign against PN critics of the Gonzi administration.

In his declaration, Dalli said that Cachia Caruana’s lawyer claims that following a two-month search only one article was found to be penned by Times editor Steve Mallia on a fraud case against Dalli in 2004, before and after 4 July, when he was made to resign by then Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.

“A search which takes a few minutes in the Times’ digital archieve covering the period between June and July 2004, produced more than 50 articles, five of which were signed by Steve Mallia,” Dalli said.

The five articles penned by Mallia, were also submitted to court this week. Dalli added that a further 40 articles were published in The Malta Independent during the same period, “with a few having the same title as the ones published in the Times.”

Moreover, Dalli said that Times journalist Ivan Camilleri, who back then was employed by PBS had on a number of occasions read reports which appeared on the Times. He added that at the same time Lou Bondio also attacked him during his programmes on TVM.

“I was referring to these facts when I spoke of a coordinated attack against me,” he said, adding that he will elaborate further when he is called to continue giving evidence in court.