Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1514782
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 JANUARY 2024 OPINION 5 Nationalist MP, who egged on Mark Camilleri to hit out at me. I kept my cool and let the whole episode unfold. But now they have crossed a line. The SLAPP action from Stew- ard International against Malt- aToday and which contributed to increasing our visibility as a media house under threat, was too much to digest for Jason Az- zopardi and Mark Camilleri, so they decided to launch an offen- sive with the publication of all the Yorgen Fenech chats. But let me rewind to May last year. It became obvious to me that Mark Camilleri's threat to publish my chats at the same that he was asking for a €100,000 interest-free loan was an attempt to extort money. I did not want to play ball and decided to publish the con- tents myself and give an expla- nation. But I also lodged a report with the police against Camilleri and Azzopardi. There were court decrees and the police did absolutely nothing, treating these two individuals as if they are demi-Gods. The appar- ent fear to take action against this diabolical pair is based on the fear that they will turn against them. In contrast to the five criminal actions initiated by the police and the Attorney General against MaltaToday when reporting on the Yorgen Fenech case, no ac- tion was taken against Camilleri and Azzopardi. A cruel man But if Mark Camilleri is the pup- pet on a string desperate to get noticed, the real culprit here is Jason Azzopardi. I have had enough with this hypocritical, self-entitled and cruel man. And when I say cruel, he is not only malicious to those around him but also to those he lived with. I make special reference to the way he treats his ex-wife, who has to live with constant pressure from him and has not been able to live a normal life with a decent income. So here we have Jason Azzopar- di picking on people who knew Yorgen Fenech, when he not only demanded freebies from the Tu- mas Group, but had free hotel accommodation at Tel Aviv paid for by the company. Mind you, he was supposedly to be on a reli- gious holiday in Israel at the time but in fact was on a secret amo- rous break with his partner. Here is a guy who ate freely from the Hilton pool bistro and restau- rants and in his typical miserly fashion never paid a bill. A tradi- tion which he upholds to this day with visits to other restaurants. But it does not stop here. No one could blame him for not knowing that Yorgen Fenech was alleged- ly involved in crime and murder. But I guess that he did not know is a perfectly fine excuse for him but not for others. A fine example of two weights and two measures. It gets worse. A confidential Europol report When Caruana Galizia was bombed, and murdered in Octo- ber 2017, Azzopardi was chosen to be in the family's legal team. It was a good choice considering his legal knowledge and immense drive. He immersed himself in the case, and was privy to various doc- umentation and data. And from the very first day, it was evident that he was the source of many privileged chats and information that were leaked to the media. The courts knew about it but did nothing. It contributed, in a good and bad way, to taking people down, changing their lives forev- er. Some were genuine mistakes, others were intentional. Azzopardi did not stop here. He had in his possession a confiden- tial Europol report which out- lined the list of potential persons of interest in the case. He passed this report to 'trusted' journalists in different media. The report is a confidential report and should re- main so, for it was part of a spec- ulative investigation in the very early days of the case. But conveniently, in his mis- chievous manner Azzopardi fanned only one part of the report which pinned suspicion on a cer- tain entrepreneur and for a very short time this was taken up by the media until it was clear that the allegation was far-fetched. This report was given to Azzo- pardi by someone in the courts. Whom I do not know? I can guess who but that is what it will be – just a guess. If the family want to blame an- yone, they should blame him not me. All I can say is that I have seen this report, and if I was one of those infamous bloggers I would surely have splashed its contents with all the raunchy details on social media. But I am not one of those bloggers, I am a mainstream media owner. Neither will I be intimidated by messages on Signal from those who believe they can tell me what to write or say or not what to say. Retainers from big business Jason Azzopardi who has a mis- sion to single out all those who had a connection to either Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri or Yor- gen Fenech seems to have a pa- nache for being two-faced. Today he receives retainers from big business. Interestingly, he works with businessmen who also employ Joseph Muscat as their top consultant. It gets even better. He also has a retainer with businessmen who have direct connections with Keith Schembri and his business. Here is a guy who denies his ex- wife a decent living income even though he had €800,000 in his bank account. And here he is, al- ways portraying himself as some kind of religious zealot. I can only puke. A pertinent question is where did he get his 800K? But I guess even this is not a justified ques- tion because it concerns Saint Jason? There is so much more about Jason Azzopardi that I can write about. I have only just started. Decent people in the politi- cal parties and those in business should start shutting the door to parasites like him. They are not really interested in the cause but only motivated by money and malevolence. Over the last 35 years in jour- nalism I have orbited in a toxic environment, with journalists turning on journalists, media on other media and politicians and businesses putting unnecessary pressure on editorial. I have tried to balance the two but my patience is running very thin. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and my newsrooms have tried to be above all this. I have tried to sustain this opera- tion for as long as is possible. I have worked all my life, with unbearable stress on my loved ones and the ones I wish best for. I will not let the Mark Camill- eris and Jason Azzopardis of this world destroy this for me. I will hit back with all I have. Jason Azzopardi today receives retainers from big business. Interestingly, he works with businessmen who also employ Joseph Muscat as their top consultant. It gets even better. He also has a retainer with businessmen who have direct connections with Keith Schembri and his business. Here is a guy who denies his ex-wife a decent living income even though he had €800,000 in his bank account. And here he is, always portraying himself as some kind of religious zealot. I can only puke.