‘Journalists were in no way locked in’
• OPM communications head grilled over November late-night press conference
Matthew Carbone, the government’s head of communications, was grilled yesterday by a public inquiry board over the government’s treatment of journalists at a late-night press conference last November.
Carbone was testifying before the public inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, which is made up of retired Judge Michael Mallia, Chief Justice Emeritus Joseph Said Pullicino, and Madam Justice Abigail Lofaro.
Jason Azzopardi, Therese Comodini Cachia, and Andrew Borg Cardona were lawyers for the Caruana Galizia family, while Charlon Gouder assisted both Carbone and Josef Caruana, who was second to testify.
Much of Carbone’s testimony focused on the events of 28 and 29 November, the days of the infamous Cabinet meeting at Castille which dragged on until 3am. A press conference was held soon after, upon completion of which journalists were barred from exiting the room for a short
period of time by individuals who refused to identify themselves.
The subject itself took up almost 50 minutes of Carbone’s testimony, with his lawyer, Charlon Gouder, protesting the relevance of the questions and their relation to Carbone. The Caruana Galizia family’s lawyers, on the other hand, continually argued with Carbone and Gouder after the former refused to identify anyone in the pictures taken that night. The board itself also rapped Carbone for being evasive in his identification of the persons in the images.
Carbone was reluctant to provide any details due to the fact that a police investigation into the subject is currently in progress – one which, he revealed, he had yet to be spoken to about. After tempers flared more than once on both sides, he eventually relented and gave his version of the events.
“The journalists were in no way locked in,” he said. “On that day, they [later explained to be demonstrators] came in for us at Castille,” Carbone said at one point mid- way through the arguments.
He explained that he had gone downstairs that day after the Cabinet meeting had ended to summon journalists into Castille for a press conference. It was at that point, he said, that demonstrators gathered in the square outside “assaulted” the doors to the building.
In the resulting fracas, he told the board that he felt that the press conference should have been called off but then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had insisted it should take place.
He explained that it is normal practice in the case of press conferences for the prime minister to leave the hall before journalists do. He said that journalists were held inside the Ambassador’s Hall for a total of two minutes and 40 seconds until the prime minister and the rest of the Cabinet had left the hall.
“We were called animals and other things by certain people there,” he claimed before noting that he felt it was his responsibility and that had he not taken action “today we would be talking about an assault on the prime minister or worse.”
Further arguments followed after Carbone initially refused to identify those present in the hall that night. It was only after 25 minutes of back and forth between the lawyers on both sides, the board and the witness himself that Carbone eventually began to leaf through the stack of images presented before him, identifying some of those pictured.
There were some people in the images whom he claimed not to recognise, but identified a number employed within Castille at the time, including Nigel Vella, Nikhail Spiteri, Ronnie Vella, and Joseph Scerri. He also identified a certain Ruben Sciberras, who, he said, worked with one of the ministers.
Finally, he stated that he had given no order whatsoever to lock journalists in the hall that night.
He was also asked by Judge Mallia whether he had something to do with the emergence of information tying Caruana Galizia’s murder to a fuel smuggling scandal. “Absolutely not,” he replied, adding that no journalist had ever contacted him about it.
He also pointed out to the board later that his role as head of government communications was to draft statements on specific subjects, although he was not involved in full discussions.
Carbone was asked whether he had heard about the Truth Project – revealed during a previous session by journalist Caroline Muscat, who described it as a coordinated disinformation and dehumanisation campaign against Daphne Caruana Galizia and other critics of the government. He replied that he did not know what it was and had never heard of it.
Carbone was asked about another part of Muscat’s testimony – the apparent exclusion of from government events. Carbone said that, to his knowledge, no such exclusion had ever occurred. He stated that since the communications teams generally know most, if not all, journalists, they do not even ask for the DOI-issued access cards to be shown.
He was also asked about whether he was ever present during discussions related to Yorgen Fenech, who is currently accused of complicity in the murder, or 17 Black, the latter’s Dubai- based company. Carbone said he had never been present for such discussions. He also stated he had never seen Fenech at Castille, adding that did not know him and had never spoken to him.
Carbone later said that he had not been in contact with Keith Schembri since November and did not speak to him regularly before then.
An attempt by Jason Azzopardi to gain more information about a meeting which took place in 2014 in Baku, Azerbaijan, between Azeri government officials and Joseph Muscat, his head of communications, Kurt Farrugia, and Konrad Mizzi, also proved futile. Carbone back then was deputy to Farrugia, and he referred Azzopardi to the statement issued by the government on the subject.
Josef Caruana, meanwhile, was second to testify. He now works at the Office of the Prime Minister, coordinating replies to parliamentary questions, but has previously worked at Union Print as the editor of and as deputy editor of
He has been criticised by the
Caruana Galizia family for his part in the campaign against the assassinated journalist.
He was in fact confronted about disparaging remarks he had made towards Caruana Galizia, but defended himself by saying that he had always abided by the law and had never been sued by any journalist for his words.
He confirmed that he had written that journalists such as Jacob Borg, Ivan Camilleri, Mario Frendo, and Daphne Caruana Galizia “should disappear from journalism” in an editorial.
He later said that he had criticised them because of their “attacks on Malta” through twisted stories, noting that Camilleri, in his view, had been fed pro-government stories under a Nationalist administration prior to 2013.
Caruana was asked about several of his tweets, but did not recognise some and said that he had not posted others because they were in English, and he never wrote in English. He noted that he may have retweeted certain things – such as posts from a blog called ‘Veru Biss’ – but could not recall doing so, and did not recall that blog in particular.
At one point Judge Said Pullicino read out a remark which seemed to imply that the family was involved in the murder. Caruana confirmed that these were his words. “As an analyst, I have to analyse the news,” Caruana stated. Said Pullicino asked how he had reached such a conclusion. “It’s not a conclusion,” Caruana said before adding that he was observing some things which were “strange but true”.
He noted that he had apologised for the remark, but the victim’s widower, Peter Caruana Galizia, shook his head and said, “Not to me.” Comodini Cachia pointed out that Caruana had only apologised to Joseph Muscat, not the victim’s family – something later confirmed by Caruana himself.
Judge Mallia later turned to the theory that Caruana Galizia’s murder involved fuel smuggling. He asked whether he had heard of this theory. Caruana replied that it had been Saviour Balzan who had first reported it, but he did not know of the theory before it emerged in the media. Madam Justice Lofaro asked how the fuel smuggling case and the assassination were linked. “I don’t know. Saviour Balzan, I suppose, has his own sources,” Caruana replied.
Asked whether he had shared the narrative himself, Caruana replied that he might have.
Madam Justice Lofaro asked whether he was a member of a Facebook group called Laburisti Magħqudin, to which Caruana replied in the affirmative, saying that he shared things with the group on occasion, especially during the MEP elections, when he was promoting his candidature.
“What do you know about the Truth project?” Madam Justice Lofaro also asked. “Nothing,” he replied, but said he was aware of its existence. “There was another one like it called Taste Your Own Medicine,” he stated, explaining that it was a sort of counter to other blogs.
He was asked whether he knew Neville Gafa, to which he replied in the affirmative as they had both worked in Castille. Asked what Gafa’s role was, Caruana replied, “I don’t know exactly what his role was.” He also testified that he had never seen Yorgen Fenech at Castille.
The victim’s sister, Corinne Vella, and her son, Matthew Caruana Galizia, presented dossiers of information on Josef Caruana, Glenn Bedingfield, and Neville Gafa, most of which detailed their activity on social media or, in Bedingfield’s case, blogs. The content, they explained, showed the disparaging remarks and their propagation of the dehumanisation campaign led against Daphne Caruana Galizia both before and after her death.
The public inquiry will continue tomorrow afternoon with the testimonies of former OPM official Neville Gafa and government deputy head of communications Nigel Vella.