>> Bedingfield insists that blog was ‘equal and opposite reaction’ to Caruana Galizia’s writings

Government MP Glenn Bedingfield insisted in front of a public inquiry on Friday that his writings were an “equal and opposite reaction” to those of slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Bedingfield was testifying in front of the public inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, which is made up of 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

Veronique Dalli assisted Bedingfield.

As Bedingfield took the witness stand, Judge Mallia pointed out that, contrary to other witnesses, he himself had asked to testify, and gave him the floor to make his statements.

Bedingfield did not hold back. Addressing the board, he said that he was there to rebut the ‘lies’ which had been told about him in certain previous testimonies, namely that of Daphne’s husband Peter Caruana Galizia.

He said that the board had been given the impression that he had sat down to plot a campaign against Daphne Caruana Galizia - something which, he said, is not true.

“Caruana Galizia attacked people, humiliated them, and called them anything under the sun,” he began.

“When someone reacts to her writings though, the impression was - and still is - given that by writing in the same manner they are attacking freedom of speech,” the MP continued.

“With her and people who support her, there are those who have the right to speak and people who don’t. There are people who have the right to attack and those who don’t,” Bedingfield said.

Bedingfield’s writings came under scrutiny – but before that scrutiny, he told the board that the only place where he used to write was on his own blog and not anywhere else. The insinuation that he had founded the blog called ‘Taste Your Own Medicine’, which was purposely opened to attack Caruana Galizia, was untrue, Bedingfield said.

He said that he had set his blog up on his own initiative because the Labour Party had a “deficit” in this regard. He remarked that this blog was political in nature, but that once he had launched it, Caruana Galizia had increased the attacks against him - and he had attacked back.

He called the allegation that he was employed in the Prime Minister’s office specifically to attack Daphne Caruana Galizia untrue. He pointed out that while he started working at Castille in 2013, his blog launched in 2015.

“Had my intention been to specifically attack her, I would have set up the blog straight away,” he stated.

Bedingfield said that it had been implied by several witnesses that he had somehow contributed to Caruana Galizia’s assassinations through his writings. “Here is the contradiction - it is then said that Caruana Galizia was killed because she wrote about someone. Or as Simon Busuttil said, ‘she was killed because she was going to uncover them’. This declaration contradicts the impression that was being given that it was I who created a climate for her to be assassinated,” Bedingfield argued.

He pointed out that Opposition Leader Adrian Delia had called Caruana Galizia a “biċċa blogger”, questioning therefore whether PN exponents were also part of this campaign against Daphne. “Did they also foster a climate of intimidation or is it just us?” Bedingfield questioned.

“She had an open season all year long to attack everyone she wanted,” Bedingfield said as he came to a conclusion. “Freedom of speech is open to everyone,” he said before noting that he had put his career on the line to stand up to her writings, and had been threatened - even with bombs - for doing that.

Bedingfield’s blog and its contents drew significant attention from the board and the family’s lawyers as he began to face questions.

Madam Justice Lofaro asked whether he had ever uploaded pictures of Daphne and her family. Bedingfield said that he had and that sometimes she was accompanied by her husband, but cannot confirm whether these pictures included her children.

He said that this was in retaliation to her writings. It was an “equal and opposite reaction,” he said. He clarifies that he had never taken the pictures himself, but that he had received them from various people.

Neville Gafa on Wednesday testified something along very similar lines.

Lawyer Comodini Cachia pointed out that since his blog launched, until a few months after Caruana Galizia had been assassinated; Bedingfield had written 579 posts with ‘Daphne’ in the headline and 402 others with ‘Caruana Galizia’ in the headline. She asks what the rationale behind this amount of posts was.

“She was a person who publicly commented about everything - she never shied away from writing, and I never shied away from writing. It was an equal and opposite reaction,” he replied. “It was a personal initiative,” he stressed when asked whether he was instructed to write such posts.

Comodini Cachia asked why he had made Daphne the personal subject of his articles. “A lot of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s writings were personal as well. That’s what an equal and opposite reaction means,” Bedingfield replied.

Bedingfield was asked about the newsworthiness of personal pictures such as those of Caruana Galizia at a cafe being uploaded. He points out that it has the same newsworthiness as posts on him, for instance, going to the theatre alone. “You’re a person of trust though,” Comodini Cachia stated. “So shall we live in a country were persons of trust can’t express themselves?” Bedingfield clapped back.

Questions at one point shifted to Bedingfield’s period as presenter of the programme ‘Tagħna t-Tnejn’, where the programme used to have a segment called ‘El Fava’ which depicted Caruana Galizia as a witch.

“I was drawn out as a vulture - as many things. It was a caricature,” Bedingfield says about the segment. “You know what happened to witches? They burnt them at the stake,” Madam Justice Lofaro replied.

He said that he had written the script himself along with his co-presenter Luke Dalli. He said that he had first seen the “witch” label being used by Lino Cassar in an article which appeared in it-Torċa.

Madam Justice Lofaro later came back to Bedingfield’s “equal and opposite reaction” reasoning, and asked why that had extended to the television screens when she was not involved in the television industry.

Bedingfield didn’t seem to have much of an answer to this, at one point suggesting that he didn’t know whether she was involved in producing certain television programmes behind the scenes - a suggestion which drew several shakes of the head and “u ajma’s” from those present. He then argued that her blog’s reach was such that the content reached everyone - more than a television programme would - but the board remained unimpressed at the answer.

Comodini Cachia asked whether his blogposts had a chilling effect on government critics. He said Daphne’s writings had the same effect on Labour Party exponents such as himself - some which he still faces today. Some people even used to spit at him on the street, Bedingfield said.

Former Chief Justice Said Pullicino, meanwhile, asked why he had stopped his blog. Bedingfield said that he was elected to Parliament in 2017, and the added workload meant that he could not keep up with it. He noted that it was his own decision to close it.

He also later said that he had taken the website down because he was planning on restarting his blog come this Easter. “I have permission, right?” he asked sarcastically after stating this.

He was asked about third parties on his blog. He said that he did use to accept guest posts, but cannot recall the names of the people who wrote. He would also moderate the comments on the blog. “I used to remove comments which I thought were unfair or over the limit,” he said.

Judge Mallia confronted Bedingfield with a post he had written, saying that he had implied that the family was involved in the murder. Bedingfield denies it: “I don’t think that her family was responsible... as if... I don’t believe it.”

However, Mallia read out from the blog post, quoting him questioning why the Caruana Galizia family was hiding Daphne’s laptop and questioning whether the family actually wanted the murder to be solved, or whether they wanted it unsolved so that “they could continue to blame it on the Labour Party”.

Bedingfield replied that at no point did he imply there that the family was involved in the murder, although the board pointed out that he had said that the family was trying to ensure that the murder isn’t solved.

He was asked about the timing of the appearance of banners questioning what had happened to Daphne’s laptops and some of his and Josef Caruana’s writings. “I wasn’t involved [in putting up the banners] - but I remember that when I saw them, I thought that I was going to get the blame for them,” he replied.

Azzopardi also asked about the makeshift memorial to Caruana Galizia at the foot of the Great Siege Monument in Valletta. “That monument doesn’t bother me - in fact I suggest that she should have her own monument,” he replied. “So you never wrote ‘good riddance’ after the monument was cleared?” Azzopardi asked. “I don’t know,” Bedingfield replied, but adds that under oath he can say that the monument did not bother him.

Both the board and Jason Azzopardi asked him several questions about his relationship to government figures and on discussions within the parliamentary group.

Bedingfield for instance said that there were no discussions in the parliamentary group about the murder, although he noted that there may have been higher up, perhaps in Cabinet, and did say that in hindsight, he should have pushed for more discussions on it.

He also said that the April 2018 allegations that then Economy Minister Chris Cardona was somehow connected to the murder through one of the three alleged hitmen was not discussed in the parliamentary group.

Bedingfield was somewhat reluctant to answer similar questions on further issues and scandals, saying; “I am not the person in the Labour Party who is responsible for taking action against people for allegations against them.”

He described his relationship with Keith Schembri – the former Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff - as a “working one”, and told the board that the last time he had spoken to Schembri was in the same period as the most recent controversy which surrounded the American University of Malta.

That was around October last year, when the University had proposed a controversial extension to their current campus along Dock 1 in Bormla. Bedingfield had protested vociferously, and the Planning Authority had eventually given the plans the thumbs down.

Bedingfield also insisted that he had never seen Yorgen Fenech at Castille. Every other OPM official has said the same thing so far.

In his testimony, Bedingfield presented a list of people whom he said Daphne Caruana Galizia had attacked. He said that the list included children, and even a person who ended up being suicidal because of her writings. He noted that even his daughter had ended up on her blog, simply because she had gone to buy a sandwich on the catamaran while going on holiday.

The next sitting will be held on Wednesday at 2pm, and will see the testimony of Gloria Beacon, Petra Caruana Dingli, and former MFSA Director Andre Camilleri.