The ‘Assassination’ Of Ivan Camilleri: Journalist Challenges Times Over Sudden And ‘Illegal’ Firing
Former Times of Malta journalist Ivan Camilleri has described his dismissal from the newspaper as an “assassination” and has warned he is ready to take legal action against them unless his employment requests are met.
“Two months ago, after 16 years of service to readers, hundreds of exclusive investigative stories and years of resisting, mostly alone, external and internal forces troubled with the truth, some of the top brass at Allied Newspapers conspired and fabricated stories about me to settle what they intended to do for many years,” Camilleri said in a statement.
“In under 90 minutes, those responsible for Allied Newspapers ‘assassinated’ their most vociferous journalistic voice without bringing one single shred of evidence to sustain their conspiracies.”
“Obviously, I will not tolerate this.”
Times of Malta dismissed Camilleri last December in the wake of allegations that he had tipped off Yorgen Fenech, the man charged with the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the day before Fenech’s botched escape from Portomaso.
The newspaper later said it had also received new information which corroborated a MaltaToday report that Camilleri had been caught shoplifting from a supermarket.
Camilleri, who had worked at The Times since 2004, today filed a judicial protest against Allied Newspaper, the owners of Times of Malta, to warn that his dismissal was illegal.
He said that at the start of December 2019, Allied Managing Director Michel Rizzo had informed him that MaltaToday’s managing editor Saviour Balzan wanted to drop a libel suit he had instituted against Camilleri over a statement he had published to deny MaltaToday’s shoplifting story.
“Ivan Camilleri’s position was that he didn’t have a problem with Saviour Balzan dropping the libel but that he needed to issue a public apology to alleviate the damage and clean some of the mud he had thrown at him,” Camilleri’s lawyer Ian Spiteri Bailey wrote.
Then, on 19th December, all hell broke loose.
Camilleri said he went to work just like any normal day and was told at 9am that Michel Rizzo wanted to speak to him at 3pm. Between 9am and 3pm, Camilleri said he worked in complete serenity, completely oblivious to the fate that was awaiting him in the boardroom.
At 3pm, Camilleri entered the boardroom for his meeting with Rizzo but found Allied chairman Paul Mercieca, director Helga Ellul and editor in chief Herman Grech all present too.
They passed him a sealed envelope which included a letter containing two accusations – one related to the shoplifting allegation and one related to as-yet unpublished claims that he had tipped off Yorgen Fenech.
In his judicial protest, Camilleri said his superiors had refused to provide a shred of proof to back up their assertions but told him to respond to them with his own version of events.
However, he was then called back into the boardroom, where Rizzo informed him that the board had decided to terminate his employment.
Immediately, orders were issued to seize Camilleri’s computer and hard disc, which contained sensitive information, including the identity of some the journalist’s sources, as well as his personal data. Camilleri’s email account was frozen and the journalist was denied access to it.
Within a few hours, the contents of the termination letter, which was titled ‘Private and Confidential’, found its way to Saviour Balzan, who requested Camilleri’s reaction and published a story on MaltaToday.
Camilleri said that he had rebutted several attempts by Times of Malta to sack him or slash his salary over the years, including a letter in 2015 which informed him he could only remain in his job if he agrees to reduce his salary by half.
He warned Allied’s treatment of him amounts to illegal behaviour, in breach of its collective agreement, not least by its refusal to grant him fair compensation. He demanded compensation, damages and the return of his personal data within the coming days, failing which he will instigate formal legal action against his former employers.
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