db Group files 19 libel cases against Daphne Caruana Galizia

Malta Independent columnist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia is refusing to back down over allegations of corruption she made regarding db Group, in the face of 19 libel cases the group said it filed against her today.

The company was awarded a €60 million concession to develop the land occupied by the Institute for Tourism Studies into a Hard Rock Hotel, a valuation that was criticized by the PN.  The group also revealed it had been a donor of the PN, stating it paid the salaries of two top PN executives. 

“We did not take the decision lightly or rashly, and it remains one which we, as a commercial entity, would have preferred not to take,” the group’s CEO Arthur Gauci said in a statement, announcing the filing of the libel suits.

“For weeks on end she has attacked, slandered and lied about our Group and the people associated with it without a shred of decency. She writes as if the laws which exist in any European democracy to protect citizens from such abominations do not apply to her. Clearly, she thinks that we should not enjoy the benefit of these laws which protect us and our rights.”

Gauci said damages the group might be awarded by the courts would go to charity.

The db Group has been at the centre of controversy after it claimed to have paid the salaries for the Nationalist Party’s general secretary and corporate strategy head. Although the PN denied the allegations, the group says it was issued invoices by the PN’s media arm. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat also accused PN leader Simon Busuttil of having personally met the db Group’s executives.

In a reaction posted on her website, Caruana Galizia said the libels were a clear act of intimidation, adding that she would not be intimidated “even if it means I’m the last person standing who you haven’t bought. You can buy Lou Bondì. You can buy Mario de Marco. But you can’t buy me,” she said.

PN deputy leader Mario De Marco was revealed to have negotiated for the db Group as part of a legal brief he relinquished last week. Former TVM presenter Lou Bondì is working as a publicist for Silvio Debono’s db Group.

The embattled blogger was only last month served with a garnishee order  for €46,000, by economy minister Chris Cardona who sued for libel over unverified allegations that he had been spotted in a German brothel. A subsequent campaign for public donations to her libel fund, led by PN candidate and radio presenter David Thake, collected well in excess of this amount.

Caruana Galizia reacts: “We in Malta are now living in a culture of fear.”

In a reaction to the announcement, the blogger said the libels were a clear act of intimidation, adding that she would not be intimidated “even if it means I’m the last person standing who you haven’t bought.”

“As we have seen from his involvement with both political parties and several politicians who he pays for services rendered, Debono has a lot of money to throw at his objective of silencing criticism of his choices, behaviour and the exceptional treatment he has got from this government, which has given him - and for a risible sum - a large piece of public land in a prime area, which he will now use for speculation on blocks of flats.

Because he cannot buy my silence by paying me for my "professional services", as he has done with others, Debono has taken another tack: using that money to hit me with a record-breaking number of libel suits... The cases will drag through the courts, it will cost me around 8,000 euros merely to file my responses, and anybody else would have been intimidated into submission. But that is not going to work where I am concerned.”

The fact that “a politician like Christian Cardona, for example, or a business operator like Silvio Debono - can file multiple libel suits as an extreme form of harassment in and of itself.

“They do not do this to protect their reputation, because their reputation is actually far more badly damaged by such grave acts of aggression against those who hold them to scrutiny and criticise their behaviour. They do it to silence criticism through fear and intimidation. This is consonant with the fact that we in Malta are now living in a culture of fear.”

Caruana Galizia dismissed db Group's claim that it did not take the decision “lightly or rashly,” saying their problem “is not moral prevarication over whether they should file 19 libel suits or not, but finding a lawyer who would carry out their perverse brief.”

She strongly denied the allegation that she had “attacked slandered and lied” about the men “for weeks on end”, pointing out that the matter became a public-interest issue only a week ago, and adding that her recent blog-posts “have really bothered them because they are so close to the bone.”

“Debono is working hard to damage his own reputation in the run-up to the bond issue on which his project depends, and he doesn't need my help in doing it. Also, as Debono and his people will find when the matter finally goes to court, opinions based on facts are not lies and nor are they libel.”

“In any other European democracy it would not have been possible for Silvio Debono to do what he has done over several years, and it would certainly not have been possible for him to acquire such a large tract of prime-area public land, removing an important public college for the purpose, through his close connections with the party in government, and then also buy the silence of the deputy Opposition leader by paying him for his professional services on the same deal. European democracies protect ordinary citizens and journalists from the depredations of individuals like Debono and the politicians who protect and serve him.”

Caruana Galizia mocked the suggestion that Debono would give to charity any sum awarded in libel damages. “ He needn't wait for that. He should give a great deal of money to charity right now, instead of giving it to political parties and spending it on a Maserati and an over-sized yacht.”