A few hours after Rababah decided to take things to social media, Mallia posted a video to his Facebook in response to Rababah’s “censorship” accusations to clear his name, especially since he does not want the “many people that have supported the podcast’s journey” to think that he “censors any of his guests.”

“Just 15 minutes ago, Omar and I were friends,” Mallia said, clearly appearing distraught.

“My side of the story is quite simple,” Mallia said, adding that “certain podcasts are published some time after they are filmed because there’s isn’t a particular urgency for them to be published and are perhaps more on the academic side,and they take longer to process than podcasts which discuss more pertinent and current affairs,” he continued.

“Then the Gaza-Israel situation came along,” he added, and “people became more sensitive to the issue,” and “Omar happened to be one of most vociferous activists on the matter,” so it did not make sense to air the podcast if the pair had not spoken about the war in Gaza, according to the podcaster.

Mallia went on to say that his intention, which he “expressed to Omar” in the aforementioned text messages, was to “wait for the right time to publish the podcast,” mainly because “certain topics which were discussed, such as the issues of racism, colonialism, and Omar’s personal experience as a Syrian in Malta,” were “always going to remain relevant.”

“Currently, people are enraged about the Gaza situation, and rightly so,” he said.

“I simply wanted our podcast to stand on its own right, and that the people who would tune in to listen to our conversation would process it without any predisposed rage,” he continued.

“Since we never discussed the Gaza situation,” as the Al-Aqsa flood had not yet happened, “I was worried that people would question why I invited him without asking about the most pertinent issue at the moment,” Mallia added.

Mallia went on to say that the themes discussed in the podcast are “very close to his heart,” something Rababah “is very aware of,” according to the podcaster since the pair met while he was “filming a documentary on Lassana Cisse’s murder,” a killing which was racially motivated.

“You know that I was going to eventually post this podcast,” he said, admitting that he was enraged about how the whole situation transpired.

Earlier today, Rababah took to his Facebook to post a video in response to Mallia’s statement, saying that he took things public in the first place because “a month later,” Mallia still gave him “no reply.”

“Why are you so pressed that I criticised you,” Rababah continued saying that all he did was “stand up for his rights and dignity.”

“If the Gaza war ends in a year and a half, are you going to publish the podcast then?”

Rababah called Mallia “inconsistent” and said that it would be “unfair” to publish a “back-dated podcast”, rendering his arguments “obsolete”.

“I am simply trying to offer you constructive criticism so that next time you would treat future guests better,” he continued.

Lovin Malta reached out to both parties for comments.

Mallia told the newsroom that his team’s loyalty remains to their core values and that it would “never” cross his mind “to censor anyone, especially someone” who according to the podcaster has “good social intentions like Omar.”

“Editorial decisions about when things are released are discussions we have on a daily basis. Never have any of our choices in this regard been criticised,” Mallia continued.

“We will come together as a team and a community as we always do to see what could have been done better to avoid further incidents such as these,” the podcaster told the newsroom.

On the other hand, Rababah told Lovin Malta that all he has to add is that since their recording “14 podcasts were published” and his was not.

What do you make of this situation?