Journalists, bloggers told to ‘attack’ Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando

Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando, Nationalist backbencher MP and a dissenting voice within his party, today admitted in court that he had been informed by blogger and publicist Daphne Caruana Galizia and other writers that they had been told to ‘attack’  him in the wake of the Mistra controversy. 

He is one of many witnesses summoned by Saviour Balzan, managing editor of MaltaToday, who is facing libel proceedings by Malta’s permanent representative to the European Union, Richard Cachia Caruana. In an opinion column, published in 2009, Balzan had commented that Cachia Caruana was behind the invective and hate attacks on those who stand in his way, or that of government policy.

In 2008 Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando had been embroiled in allegations that he had pressured MEPA to issue a permit for a discotheque on land belonging to him on Mistra. 

Pullicino Orlando said in court that at the time, he was told by Mrs Caruana Galizia that she had been told to attack him in the Mistra saga. He said that he also heard of this from other journalists including Vanessa Macdonald. When asked who the other journalists were he said he couldn't remember. When asked if the person was Richard Cachia Caruana, he answered rather evasively that he could not exclude this. But he did not confirm.

Richard Cachia Caruana is today a cabinet member and also serves as Malta’s permanent representative in Brussels. 

When questioned about Caruana Galizia’s writings about him, Pullicino Orlando said that the blogger had attacked him for his stand on the proposed development at St John’s Co Cathedral.  

Pullicino Orlando’s objection to the project was reportedly fuelled by his disagreements with Richard Cachia Caruana, whom he privately blames for the backlash after the 2008 election in the Mistra affair.

Cachia Caruana sat on the Cathedral’s foundation’s committee and was passionately in favour of the extension.  Another opponent of the extension, Astrid Vella of Flimkien ghall-Ambjent Ahjar, was also personally attacked on Caruana Galizia’s blog. 

When asked about other dissenting voices in the PN, who were also the target of attacks, Pullicino Orlando insisted that they were not ‘dissidents’ but politicians doing their work. When asked to mention who were the so called ‘dissidents’ he mentioned Robert Arrigo, Franco Debono, Jesmond Mugliett and Jean Pierre Farrugia: all Nationalist MPs who were ‘attacked’ on the same blog.