It is no secret that media companies across the world are struggling to make ends meet, downsizing their operations to survive. Times of Malta is no different.
For the past several years, newsroom budgets have been slashed, and then slashed again. Staff who moved on were not replaced. Any investment had to be carefully considered before it was undertaken. There was little opportunity to focus spending on innovation. The number one priority was survival, even as Times of Malta’s readership grew to record numbers and the quality of investigative journalism reached levels never seen before in its 85-year history.
One floor down from the editorial offices, things were even messier. A once-thriving company, Progress Press, was gradually downscaled as the printing business it focused on became less profitable. Dozens of workers were made redundant. On Friday, we learnt that this hardship could have been, at least in part, a criminal plan.
Police inspectors told a court that a complex money trail that started at Progress Press led into bank accounts owned by Keith Schembri, Malcolm Scerri, Adrian Hillman and Vince Buhagiar.
Prosecutors believe Progress Press, at the time led by Hillman and Buhagiar, paid around US$6.5m more than it should have for printing machines it bought off Schembri and Scerri. An inspector described it as a “clear case of bribery” to buy machinery from Schembri’s company, Kasco.
If Schembri was willing to swindle private shareholders and cheat the taxman, why should he be expected to have acted any differently with the public purse?
Schembri and the others charged are innocent until proven guilty. But the evidence presented in court, from records of six-figure transactions to the discovery of a Schembri-authored spreadsheet that laid out how the money would be split, appears damning.
Friday’s testimony stunned the nation and sickened those who, like us, have dedicated their professional careers to Times of Malta. For years, since Daphne Caruana Galizia first revealed that Schembri and Hillman were in offshore cahoots, some suspicious minds have wondered whether their business dealings were a pretence for Schembri to take control of Times of Malta’s editorial line.
We have strongly dismissed that suggestion, repeatedly noting the clear line between the company’s commercial and editorial departments. Make no mistake: editors will not be bullied or cajoled into publishing anything they do not believe in.
But Friday’s testimony, if confirmed by a guilty verdict, raises another pertinent question: apart from enriching himself, was Keith Schembri out to bankrupt Progress Press and, by extension, cripple Times of Malta?
Was the “bridge” that he spoke of one that led to financial ruin? The case is still at its early stages but change must begin immediately, and there is plenty of internal soul-searching the Allied Group must do.
The auditors at the time also have questions to answer. But we will also not let exponents of the Labour government use diversionary tactics to transfer Schembri’s sins onto Times of Malta as they have been strategically doing for the past week.
As prime minister and a former member of Joseph Muscat’s cabinet, Robert Abela cannot sit idly by while revelations from the law courts rip the country’s reputation to shreds. Dissociating himself from Schembri and Joseph Muscat is not enough: he must amputate to stop this sickness from spreading. Abela should order a full probe into all deals which Schembri piloted as chief of staff at the Office of the Prime Minister, as ADPD suggested. At the top of that list should be the $100 million deal that brought Crane Currency to Malta.
If Schembri was willing to swindle private shareholders and cheat the taxman, why should he be expected to have acted any differently with the public purse?