Inquiry attempts to pressure media

The inquiry that the President has asked for, may invoke a 1977 law that carries a penalty of up to six months imprisonment should anybody refuse to appear before it.

However, MaltaToday editor Saviour Balzan has made it clear that he will not present himself before the board of inquiry, given that the matter is strictly “an internal governmental issue.”

In his reply to the official issuing the summons to appear before the board of inquiry, Saviour Balzan stressed that the inquiry is an attempt to silence the media on reporting facts on alleged irregularities within the Office of the President.

“What we knew has been published, and will publish more should we get to know more,” Balzan told the official, while adding that the insistence by Castille to interrogate journalists is reminiscent of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s plight in confronting the Soviet regime.

Meanwhile, the terms of reference relating to the board of inquiry have still not been made public.

The board of inquiry was set up in a haste last Saturday, some two hours after President George Abela ended a press conference at San Anton Palace.

Government sources have confirmed with MaltaToday that President George Abela literally “twisted government’s arm” by announcing the inquiry when it wasn’t even yet set up, putting also in clear difficulty the Director General for Government Information Martin Bugelli who was not in a position to give replies as to who was to lead the board and what the terms of reference were.

A series of phone calls that followed the press conference led to a three line sentence that announced Alfred Fiorini Lowell as the chairman of the board of inquiry.

During the unprecedented press conference President Abela ‘dumped’ his former senior aide Olaph Terribile, stressing that he “lost faith” in the man, but stopping short of supplying any reasons.

President Abela admitted to the issue raised by MaltaToday last week that revealed the ‘absorption’ of a beleaguered production company within the Office of the President, and the employment of its directors with a salary from the Community Chest Fund.

A number of issues related to expenditure and breaches in financial regulations within the Office of the President have so far remain unanswered.