Times of Malta’s editorial team has called for the publication of a 2016 internal inquiry into the questionable dealings between former Allied Newspapers managing director Adrian Hillman and former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri. 

In an editorial piece published on the new site, Times of Malta addressed criticism by stating that the editorial staff “remained conspicuously silent” about the internal query due to the fact that it never saw it. 

“There is one simple reason for this – the editors have never seen the concluded inquiry. Formal requests for a copy of the inquiry have been turned down,” the team said.

“Editorial disagrees with this stance and believes its conclusion should have been made public.”

The editorial team also said that the organisation’s structure, which separates the commercial entity from its editorial counterpart, meant that “editors are not privy to decisions made by company management.”

“If anything, we are victims of this sordid affair.”

In addition to concluding that the internal inquiry is made public, the editorial team also requested that an external auditor take a look at Allied’s financial affairs over the past years.

In March 2016, now-assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia flagged suspicious payments from Kasco, a company owned by then OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri, to Hillman. 

Hillman denied wrongdoing but immediately resigned from his post as Allied managing director, while the Allied Group entrusted retired judge Giovanni Bonello with carrying out an internal inquiry into the allegation. Allied has never published this inquiry.