Guilty of delivering misleading information

The Head of Government Communication Kurt Farrugia is found guilty of delivering "misleading information aimed at damaging a person’s reputation".

Full report: http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-11-11/news/kurt-farrugia-given-dressing-down-for-news-report-during-hot-political-climate-3154149376/

Police should have handled Vella case better - PM

From TIMES OF MALTA.COM

The police should have handled things better in the case of Norman Vella, after he was accused of taking pictures in a restricted airport area, according to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

“I don’t interfere in police investigations but things could have been done better,” Dr Muscat said in an interview with The Sunday Times of Malta.

Asked if he planned to do anything about the matter, after Mr Vella, a former TV presenter, called for an investigation, Dr Muscat said he did not feel it was his place to meddle in police investigations.

Read the full story in The Sunday Times of Malta, the e-paper or on timesofmalta.com premium here.

The Norman Vella saga

By Stephen Calleja
Published in The Malta Independent on Sunday

If people are going to be arrested on the flimsy suspicion that they took photos of two government communications officers in the airport’s departure lounge, then I wonder where we’re heading.

There are various points that need clarification and analysis after what former TV presenter Norman Vella had to go through this past week, starting off with his arrest on Sunday.

Norman Vella offers to appear on PBS, but no invitation received

From THE MALTA INDEPENDENT

In the wake of calls for tonight’s Xarabank’s programme to deal with the Norman Vella arrest last Sunday, Mr Vella has written that since he was part of the team that produced Malta’s most popular programme, his situation should not be discussed there.

Writing on Facebook after the social media was inundated with requests that Xarabank should deal with Mr Vella’s arrest, the former TV presenter said that it is precisely the fact that he worked together with Peppi Azzopardi and the Xarabank team that the programme should not tackle his issue.

But Mr Vella noted that on Monday morning he had informed PBS head of news Reno Bugeja that he and his lawyers Karol Aquilina and Therese Comodini Cachia were prepared to take part in any other programme on PBS.

But, since Monday, no current affairs programme on PBS has made an invitation, Mr Vella said.
PBS, he said, had a daily two-hour current affairs programme in the morning (the breakfast show presented by Pablo Micallef and Norma Saliba) and five hourly programmes before the 8pm news between Monday and Friday (presented by Saviour Balzan, The Times newsroom, Andrew Azzopardi and PBS newsroom).