Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1514428
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 JANUARY 2024 OPINION 5 Saviour Balzan Lifting a middle finger to Steward Saviour Balzan is founder and co-owner of Media Today, publisher of MaltaToday, he is a TV host and pollster SOME weeks ago, I received court documents in Spanish. I cannot read Spanish but it was obvious that the papers indicat- ed that Steward Health Care had instituted defamation proceed- ings against this media house and MaltaToday journalist Mat- thew Vella. The court papers called on MediaToday to show up in a Spanish Court. Steward was re- questing damages to the tune of €25,000 and if the court found this company guilty, to publish a prominent advert with the court decision in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and Le Soir. Adverts in these reputable newspapers usually costs thousands. Understandably, we will not be visiting Madrid and we will not be engaging in any court litigation. Yesterday, MediaToday wrote to Prime Minister Robert Abela calling on him to introduce an- ti-SLAPP legislation to protect journalists and media houses from vexatious court action intended to shut us up. The Prime Minister has in front of him a proposal drawn up by the Committee of Media Experts but calls for anti-SLAPP legis- lation have long been made by the IGM and others. If Abela really means what he says about the freedom of the press in Malta he should be the first one to take action and en- act legislation that will allow us to do our job and report on matters that are of public inter- est. Steward decided to take us to court because the compa- ny did not get what it wanted from MaltaToday when, some two years ago, Armin Ernst, the CEO and president of Steward, appeared unannounced at my office. He came along with an in- nocuous young Maltese lawyer whom I remember working for an online news site – one of those sites always professing to be more virginal than the Vir- gin Mary. I will not reveal the content of the conversation that took place that day but I was under the impression at the time that Ernst was following the advice of the former prime minister Joseph Muscat. Muscat did not try and hide his connection to Steward after he unceremoniously resigned from office in January 2020, even though his first obligation was to his country and his par- ty. Then and now MaltaToday was highly critical of the deal with Steward and before that Vitals, where Ernst also had the role of CEO. The manner by which Vitals and Steward did things was to enlist the services of as many influential Maltese as was hu- manly possible. Former Nationalist propa- gandists now turned Labour lackeys; Labour activists who worked on the fourth floor; former Nationalist MPs; and keeping a very deep bond with the powers that be. Now we know that the Vi- tals and Steward deal under Ernst was basically the great train robbery for this country. Thanks to Joseph Muscat they set up house in Malta and were offered a deal to die for without a decent due diligence. To put it mildly, it remains one of the biggest mistakes of the Labour administration. The transfer of the three pub- lic hospitals was more akin to a Thatcherite political agen- da and I am sure that Muscat would not feel offended if he was accused of being a Thatch- erite. I recall that he was always more excited with news about Donald Trump, Silvio Berlus- coni and David Cameron than his international Labour and Socialist counterparts. But back to Ernst. Ernst is obviously trying to win some brownie points with his boss Ralph de la Torre, the owner of Steward, but Ernst believes that by taking Media- Today and Matthew Vella to a Madrid court we will crumble and fall apart. But he does not quite under- stand where we come from. This media house was born out of a garage with the 'misguided' dream to change the world. This media company has re- ceived more defamation cas- es than any other journalist in Malta; more SLAPP action than any other media house. We have survived and will con- tinue to do journalism in the public interest. The truth is that the deal with Steward was a very simple case of daylight robbery. Vitals and Steward were brought over to Malta to en- rich a few individuals. When the grass grows, it will serve as an eye-opener about Muscat's true intentions and how people including myself were taken for a ride and mesmerised by his fake intentions. Had it not been for Adrian Delia's resolve to persevere with the court case to rescind the deal, we would still have Steward operating in Mal- ta even though the American outfit added zilch value to our health system. It succeeded in only one sim- ple venture – sucking Maltese public funds to benefit the shareholders. We should have objected or raised an eyebrow to Muscat's stratagem of bringing these hungry villains to replace our perfectly sane health system. Those who say they did not know, are also being untruth- ful. So, it seems, the Madrid courts may well declare Medi- aToday and Matthew Vella to be guilty as hell for reporting on Steward, but this will not silence us. It is up to Robert Abela to play his part and ensure that journalists in this country re- main free to transmit the news unhindered by the ruses of former politicians and their greedy clients. Armin Ernst and Joseph Muscat