The night press freedom rose from the ashes

"While the Maltese Parliament resumed its sittings after this summer recess, scenes of violence by some Socialist thugs enveloped the city and its environs. The trouble broke out following a demonstration by Socialists to mark the Prime Minister Mr Mintoff's 30th anniversary as leader of the Malta Labour Party."

So started the front page story headed Times Building Gutted written by The Times staff reporters on the night of October 15, 1979 for the memorable edition of the newspaper the following day.

A group of men had broken into the building and set everything on fire.

The 25th anniversary of the event, which came to be known as Black Monday, will be marked today at 1 p.m. at the premises of Allied Newspapers Ltd, in St Paul Street, Valletta, with a thanksgiving Mass for the staff celebrated by spiritual director Fr William Bartolo.

Allied Newspapers Ltd managing director Vincent Buhagiar paid tribute to workers who, he said, had shown great courage.

He said that as a result of their cooperation The Times continued to be printed and not a single issue was missed. This had given courage to the management who worked hard to restore normality to Allied Newspapers in the shortest time possible.

Mr Buhagiar also praised the cooperation of ANL's suppliers, including the foreign ones, who had given the company preference in providing the necessary machinery and equipment without any delay to enable it to continue operations.

He said ANL continued to mark this day even spiritually, thanking God for the fact that not one single job was lost. In fact, the then managing director, Ronald Agius, had assembled employees some time after the fire to assure them that no one would be laid off.

On the evening of October 15, 1979, a group of thugs went on a destructive rampage, also setting fire to the Nationalist Party club in Valletta and ransacking the home of Nationalist Party leader Eddie Fenech Adami in Birkirkara, terrorising his family.

Towards the end of the demonstration, thugs broke into The Times building, destroyed machinery and furniture and set the place alight. None of the staff was injured but a number of night staff were blocked inside by the fire and had to escape using firemen's ladders.

In an incident which showed how people can think in an unreasonable manner in a crisis, one of the night staff refused to throw down the bag he was clasping as he climbed down three storeys because inside was a bottle of milk which he feared would break!

Many of the staff of the time are either retired or no longer with us. Few of those who remember the horror of that eventful evening are still working for the company.

One of them is former editor Victor Aquilina, at the time a senior journalist:

"I was caught in a room in the front part of the building where we were having a meeting of the house union. There were four or five of us.

"We saw them coming from one of the windows overlooking St Paul Street, rushing towards the main door, some of them armed with objects in their hands.

"They pushed the door down and in no time the place was on fire.... we could hear them running about and my heart sank as they came close to where we were.

"It was a harrowing experience. Were we trapped? Would we be able to get out of the inferno alive? What happened to the other workers?

"Then, we heard them throwing furniture out of the windows, anything they could lay their hands on.... They were in a kind of frenzy... the scene remains vivid to me to this day.

"When we thought it was all over, we just ran for our lives, down the burning staircase, over charred wood and finally escaped through the main door!

"Our colleagues, caught in the back of the building, escaped through the roofs or down fire-engine ladders. When we were outside we saw the whole building on fire... How could it all happen so quickly?

"Then, after some time, Charles Grech Orr, the then editor, called some of us who were still at the scene to go with him to Independence Print.

"We had a story to tell, and, my God, even though we were still shaking from the experience we spent the night there producing the next morning's issue.

"The Times of Malta had gone through terrible times during the war, including two direct hits, but it never missed an issue. So we did not intend letting the arsonists suppress its voice..."

Writing in the 50th anniversary supplement of The Times in August 1985, Mr Grech Orr had stated that the issue of The Times of October 16, 1979, was especially significant because it defeated an attack on the freedom of the press and on the right to freedom of expression.

The widespread condemnation of the attack showed unmistakably and categorically the community's awareness of the dangers that threatened basic human rights, Mr Grech Orr wrote.

Personally, never in the 39 years I have been working in the newsroom did I feel I would end up not doing the job I was trained for.

This thought struck me like lightning as I turned from Melita Street into St Paul Street at about 6.30 p.m. or so and saw a huge jet of flame coming out of the then advertising department balcony. The street was littered with typewriters, papers and broken furniture.

I was on my way to the office to prepare the write-up on the demonstration as on that day I had been assigned that late coverage.

The feeling of something terribly wrong started creeping in when I was in Merchants Street approaching St Paul Street when I could smell smoke and see small pieces of burned paper showering the street as I approached the building.

I had been used to covering similar demonstrations as part of my duties and my instinct had told me to wait for a while before going to the office when I saw a group of men running while as held unidentified objects in their hands. They had just finished the "job" at the PN club in Queen's Square.

I had stayed back because I had became accustomed to what used to happen in such demonstrations. Usually, staff caught inside the building became the target of verbal abuse; there would be a lot of banging on the main door and stone throwing at glass on apertures of The Times building. But the attack used to be over in a few minutes.

I recall being in Mr Grech Orr's office during one such attack and a stone, the size of a large apple, shot through a glass pane and ended on the editor's desk. He kept it on his desk as a paperweight as a souvenir.

On the night of the fire, hope that not all was lost started to grow as Mr Grech Orr picked me up along with other editorial staff and asked us to go to Independence Print in Pietà to produce the next day's The Times.

We worked throughout the night.

The arson attack on The Times stirred up strong condemnation and sympathy and support from readers and advertisers who for many days after had booked empty space, at times full page insertions, in the newspaper, simply writing the message "In support of The Times".

This was an example of the determination of hard working staff to ensure that the paper came out the day after despite what had happened.

They worked all night trying to write from memory the stories of the day including the story about an incident at Castile when an individual insisted on speaking to Mr Mintoff at his office.

After the blaze, the main building of The Times was destroyed, and many hours after the attack other smaller fires broke out in other parts of the building before workers, under the indefatigable Mr Agius and other directors, including Wilfred Asciak, Joseph Busuttil and Percy Bowman, could start clearing the huge mess and restoring part of the building to once again house the staff.

In the meantime, the editorial staff used offices at Independence Print in Pietà.

Again, the pen proved to be mightier than the sword.