Bondì writes to Josè Barroso over Dalli’s BA complaint

Bondiplus presenter Lou Bondì has written to the President of the European Commission, to complain about a letter of complaint the European Commissioner John Dalli filed against him with the Broadcasting Authority.

In a letter to Josè Manuel Barroso, Bondì complained that Dalli making an “illegitimate attempt to shackle [him]” in the exercise of his profession and that his behaviour “might not conform with his remit as EU Commissioner.”

“The behaviour of Commissioner John Dalli, your commissioner, is completely and utterly unacceptable.”

In the letter copied to all Maltese MEPs, Bondì asked Barroso to take all necessary action he deemed fit, and that he would bring the matter to the attention of European journalism bodies.

On Friday, former finance and foreign minister John Dalli wrote to Broadcasting Authority chairman Anthony Tabone complaining that Bondì was using his PBS show Bondiplys for his personal interests.

Bondì was discussing the Opposition’s motion of no confidence against Transport Minister Austin Gatt last Thursday, when he asked PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier whether he suspected the hand of Commissioner John Dalli – a candidate for the PN leadership in 2004 – behind the rebellion of Nationalist backbencher Franco Debono, who abstained on the Labour motion.

Borg Olivier categorically denied any interference from Dalli, to which Bondì again asked him if he was certain.

“Lou Bondi has once again chosen to mention my name into something which I have nothing to do with. I want to clarify that I have nothing to do with the whole issue, either directly or indirectly,” Dalli wrote in his letter to the BA.

Dalli also complained that Bondì was making use of PBS primetime to “push forward his personal agenda, promoting, or trying to bring down whoever he feels like and when he feels like. This was yet another link in the chain of misinformation and comments with the aim of tarnishing my reputation with the Maltese public.”

In his complaint to Barroso today, Bondì defended his line of questioning: “Journalistically, the question was perfectly legitimate.”

Bondì also said Dalli’s complaint to the BA made “a number of slanderous, false and unjust statements about me as a journalist.”

In October, Dalli told Inkontri presenter Joe Grima that he had “no doubt” that Where’s Everybody director Lou Bondì was part of a clique that “programmed” the pressure that led to his resignation in 2004. “Weeks later Bondì boasted in a promo that his programme had led to my resignation,” Dalli said.

In the letter to Barroso, Bondì said Dalli had made “false claims” about him in the media on a number of occasions, and that invitations to him to “substantiate them in a court of law had been turned down”.