Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1367395
SOME five days before the 2017 election, then-Opposition lead- er Simon Busuttil testified for a good 90 minutes before Magis- trate Josette Demicoli. Busut- til's target was justifiably Keith Schembri, the former OPM chief of staff. He had said that he had presented the magis- trate with irrefutable evidence of a clear case of graft involving the former top executive of the Allied Group, Adrian Hillman. No one imagined that it would include other directors. In Sep- tember of last year, the press started to report that the mag- isterial inquiry had been con- cluded. We could only specu- late what would happen next. In March of this year, it was Keith Schembri who jumped the gun and revealed in a social media post that he would prob- ably be charged. And so it was, but apart from Schembri and other directors of his printing machinery company, the police also arraigned Nexia BT audi- tors and another prominent, former director at The Times. It was a grand affair with all the accused denied bail in a day-long arraignment parade that was surely meant to send a message beyond the corridors of the courts. What was even more startling was that Allied's printing com- pany Progress, and its director, who runs the whole company, would be facing money laun- dering and fraud charges. Understandably, everyone who works in the press and printing industry watched as the events unfolded. I happen to know all the individuals who have been arraigned. I started printing at Progress and Allied, the owners of The Times, in 1987. Before that, I would use the Church's print- ing presses. I have fond mem- ories of the people at Progress. From its St Paul's Street head- quarters to the ill-thought me- ga-printing press in Mrieħel, as all other presses disappeared over the last 30 years, The Times's printers continued to fly the flag high. I had worked with all the newspaper printing presses: the Church, the Na- tionalists', the Union press… when Progress upgraded its own press, the others started to close down to call it a day, which is now a feature of the changing world of printing. I would not have written of this subject today, had I not seen the statement issued by Allied Newspapers on Friday which stated that the group was expressing its "immeas- urable surprise that the State yesterday" was charging Pro- gress Press and director Michel Rizzo with fraud and money laundering offences as a result of the investigation into graft between the Schembri, Hillman and Vince Buhagiar. The Demicoli inquiry made it abundantly clear what the po- lice must investigate and whom. Police Commissioner Angelo Gafà took to the investigation without fear or favour, even interrogating the Commission- er of Inland Revenue Marvin Gaerty, a top civil servant, who was stripped naked before be- ing questioned. Gaerty was not arraigned and is still Commis- sioner of Inland Revenue. I for one, know Michel Rizzo cannot believe that he could be responsible for having de- frauded anyone or having laun- dered money. That is my be- lief, not my perception. I can understand there is a state of shock inside The Times. Unlike Michel, I am willing to stand up for him and say as much, even if it hurts. But to read Allied's statement that "the State" has now landed everyone in court, could be in- sinuated as some orchestrated campaign against the compa- ny or newspaper, is certainly hard to digest. For a newspaper publisher, I would imagine that some humility or caution would follow the arraignment of its directors; and such a statement seems to invite those following the case to think that either Al- lied is beyond reproach, or that observers should simply look the other way, because it's Al- lied. One needs no university de- gree to understand how history in Malta has been built around the conflicts between one side and the other, between classes and party blocs. To me there is no doubt that had the po- lice arraigned Saviour Balzan - as the owner of Mediatoday Co. Ltd - my newspaper Malt- aToday would have been given no quarter. I would have been taken to the cleaners and de- clared an outcast before being pronounced guilty or acquit- ted… and this is simply because Malta is a land in which some animals, are more equal than others. Before 2013, Allied obtained some €13 million in tax cred- it from Malta Enterprise, then run a bit like a fiefdom by Law- rence Gonzi's former commu- nications chief, Alan Camilleri (brother to disgraced, former Times journalist Ivan Camill- eri). I don't remember other media organisations being af- forded the consideration or op- portunity to enter into a discus- sion with Malta Enterprise over grants, support or factory space at the time. Now, a €13 million tax credit, a phenomenal amount, would have certainly made commer- cial sense for a company that was in pole position. But I don't think Allied even smelt the advent of digital publishing, allowing the Miller Group to creep in and take over the whole market. Still, it was then a time in which lavish government ad- vertising campaigns would be pumped into Allied Newspa- pers without any question be- ing raised, when of course, oth- er nuisance newspapers were being fed the crumbs (or sim- ply ignored by the apartheid in place against newspapers that were critical of the Nationalist administration). Nobody raised a finger in solidarity; nobody raised any protest for news- papers that were sued for libel multiple times by 'the State' or debilitating garnishees by busi- ness moguls. Progress built a massive print- ing complex, unsuitable for such a small market. Yet those tax credits were never used, be- cause the company surprisingly made no profits. Whether the company directors went slow on the bonuses, entertainment allowances, or salary raises, is another thing altogether… Al- lied was never deprived of rev- enues. Maybe it was deprived of something else, like common sense. For the changes brought about by time and greed itself, caught up with some people. In 2013, it appears an attempt was made to convert some of those tax credits into grants, so a more considerate Malta En- terprise offered a life-saver to Allied by converting those tax credits into a smaller, but quite significant grant of around €1.7 million. This is where the ar- raignments of Allied and Pro- gress directors seem to have their root. And at this point, I cannot say what happened. Just days before this whole fracas, I was discussing with the other news- papers the set-up for an associ- ation of newspaper publishers to address the concerns of our industry, and finding ways of sustaining it with help from the State without losing any of our independence. I sat down with Michel Rizzo even though I knew that time and time again, there was no love lost between the two sides (I could recall the way The Times and its directors imme- diately accused me of lying and of 'malicious intent' when writ- ing about Ivan Camilleri, only to later discover I was right after all, and then proceeded to sack Camilleri). The Times has al- ways made sure to air Mediato- day's business concerns (we do not just publish newspapers), as if these directly impinged on the editorial independence of MaltaToday itself. All news- paper directors are tasked with the job of raising money for the core operation itself, the news- paper… yet nobody is accusing The Times of being manned by 'tax dodgers' simply because Allied's directors are facing accusations in court. That Chi- nese wall is equal for all. However, I imagine that if Al- lied is blaming "the State" for the explosive device that has been landed on its doorstep, it should respect the fact that Magistrate Josette Demicoli's integrity, credentials or inten- tions have never been ques- tioned by anyone, not even its own newspaper. Some humility I guess, would be welcome, until the worst is over. 5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 MAY 2021 OPINION The goose and the gander Saviour Balzan One needs no university degree to understand how history in Malta has been built around the conflicts between one side and the other, between classes and party blocs.