Owen Bonnici Called Up NET Journalist To Bury Sexual Harassment Story, Julie Zahra Claims
Nationalist MP Julie Zahra has accused Arts Minister Owen Bonnici of calling up a journalist at the PN’s media house NET to try and bury a story about sexual harassment at the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra.
“I said in a statement yesterday that Owen Bonnici had called up particular newsrooms to try and control the story,” Zahra said during a discussion on NET’s Analiżi this morning.
“I can say today that he had also called up NET’s newsroom to speak to a journalist and tell her that the government had set up an inquiry board to look into the sexual harassment allegations as an attempt to control the story. Why did Owen Bonnici want to hide behind this investigation and stop the story from coming out?”
Zahra also claimed that the sexual harassment victim had spoken to Bonnici personally about what was happening but the minister “did nothing” and instead tried to “cover it up”.
Julie Zahra on Analiżi this morning
“Put yourself in the victim’s shoes,” the MP urged viewers. “Imagine it was your daughter and the minister tried to cover up that she had been sexually harassed. This is a very serious case.”
Bonnici has denied the claims that he had tried cover up the allegations, stating that he had informed the Commission on Gender-Based and Domestic Violence as soon as he heard about the allegations.
“I wanted this office, which has the necessary expertise, to guide the employee on how to act in these circumstances,” he said.
“Eventually, as the allegations were formalised in a resignation letter, an external board was set up in line with the government’s anti-sexual harassment policy.”
MPO CEO Sigmund Mifsud
A 31-year-old MPO employee, whose name cannot be revealed by court order, last week pleaded guilty to sexually harassing a female colleague, who then reportedly resigned due to “excessive stress”.
He was given a one-year imprisonment suspended for four years and placed under a five-year restraining order.
Yesterday, the orchestra’s CEO Sigmund Mifsud was charged with tampering with evidence after he allegedly instructed his employees to keep quiet about the case. He is pleading not guilty and has been suspended as CEO.
The PN has called for Bonnici to resign over the case.
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