What if I told you that every media trend is a psychological operation and that ‘media lies matter’? What if I told you that once you understand that you are not being ‘informed’ by journalists and media professionals, but rather, you are being informed by paid, propaganda operatives, will the picture become clearer for you that you always have to read in between the lines whenever you read a media article, and you even have to do your own research to find the truth?
This was the case with the way the media reported the alleged mental health issue of the star witness in David Gatt’s trial. Here is how the matters were told to us:
On 29th October 2013, a paragraph by MaltaToday stated: “Portelli has denied in court that he had once been recovered at Mount Carmel psychiatric hospital, and while a doctor was summoned to testify that Portelli was never a patient at MCH, the defence claims it will present new witnesses to this effect.” From information that has reached this site, no testimony was brought forth by the defence to prove the alleged claim that Mario Portelli had once been recovered at Mount Carmel psychiatric hospital. If a doctor had testified during the trial that Portelli had never been a patient at MCH, can the media explain what was it trying to insinuate?
Not only Portelli’s reputation was being tarnished and labelled, but his job was tampered with since it was reported that sources within the police force that Portelli had been transferred to the police garage as a driver.
Then we have another article by the Times of Malta, dated 18th January 2017, stating that “the prosecution case had been built around the evidence of policeman Mario Portelli, who was subsequently boarded out for medical reasons.” It quotes another article which it published on 14th January 2015, saying that “a medical file listing the reasons why police constable Mario Portelli was boarded out (cleared not to work for medical reasons) from the corps will have to be exhibited in court as part of the case against lawyer and former police inspector David …” It added that “the defence had queried whether Mr Portelli had ever been held at Mount Carmel psychiatric hospital, which the officer denied” and for which, as we read above, a doctor had also testified that he was never a psychiatric patient. The media should be more specific here and specify that, according to information that has reached this site, it was PC99 Mario Portelli himself who asked to be boarded out and this was accepted. And then magistrate Trigona had ordered for Portelli’s medical file to be presented in court. According to information that has reached this site, Mario Portelli was suffering from depression.
And note aside, please note that depression has nothing to do with being a ‘disease of the mind’. Author Jeff Brown wrote that ‘depression is unexpressed, unreleased, and unhealed pain that is held repressed deep within the physical and emotional body.” Let’s face it. PC Mario Portelli was going through a separation and was going through, albeit with an extremely courageous stance, this difficult case. He himself stated, in his letter to Inspector Mercieca, how when he reported the case, he had to do that at his own personal expense, risking his health, his job and everything he had so that he could say that he did the right thing.
How much can a human being take?
But does this still make his evidence less credible, especially when we have had other testimonies? Does still make his evidence less credible, since David Gatt is again now mentioned in the Degiorgios’ press release as having been involved in the cases about which Portelli himself gave evidence of knowledge in the court?
Then we have another paragraph in an article by MaltaToday, dated 1st November 2020, which reads: “But Portelli was then already suffering from mental health problems, with Gatt’s defence alleging that he had been a Mount Carmel psychiatric patient, a fact that would reveal itself years laterin his livestreamed rants on Joseph Muscat.” What fact? Didn’t a doctor testify that he was never in Mount Carmel hospital during the trial? So, how can MaltaToday write that “Portelli was then already suffering from mental health problems?” What was the agenda of MaltaToday during this reporting?
Since when has depression been turned into a valid reason for the media to insinuate that Portelli was already suffering from mental health problems during the trial?
And, excuse me, Mario Portelli was arrested and hospitalised in 2019, two years after David Gatt was acquitted from court! Dear readers, putting aside the political allegations that Mario Portelli was making in this video, do you see someone who is suffering from mental health issues? Do you see a doctor in this video? Who gave the orders for Portelli to be hospitalised? What were the true reasons? It would have been more understandable if Portelli was taken to a police station and questioned, and maybe taken to Court to prove his allegations. But why was he hospitalized at Mount Carmel?
Dear readers, considering that David Gatt’s defence had queried whether Mr Portelli had ever been held at Mount Carmel psychiatric hospital, which he had denied and for which, a doctor had also testified that he was never a psychiatric patient, do you smell rats?
How the media twisted the alleged mental health issue of Mario Portelli
What if I told you that every media trend is a psychological operation and that ‘media lies matter’? What if I told you that once you understand that you are not being ‘informed’ by journalists and media professionals, but rather, you are being informed by paid, propaganda operatives, will the picture become clearer for you that you always have to read in between the lines whenever you read a media article, and you even have to do your own research to find the truth?
This was the case with the way the media reported the alleged mental health issue of the star witness in David Gatt’s trial. Here is how the matters were told to us:
On 29th October 2013, a paragraph by MaltaToday stated: “Portelli has denied in court that he had once been recovered at Mount Carmel psychiatric hospital, and while a doctor was summoned to testify that Portelli was never a patient at MCH, the defence claims it will present new witnesses to this effect.” From information that has reached this site, no testimony was brought forth by the defence to prove the alleged claim that Mario Portelli had once been recovered at Mount Carmel psychiatric hospital. If a doctor had testified during the trial that Portelli had never been a patient at MCH, can the media explain what was it trying to insinuate?
Not only Portelli’s reputation was being tarnished and labelled, but his job was tampered with since it was reported that sources within the police force that Portelli had been transferred to the police garage as a driver.
Then we have another article by the Times of Malta, dated 18th January 2017, stating that “the prosecution case had been built around the evidence of policeman Mario Portelli, who was subsequently boarded out for medical reasons.” It quotes another article which it published on 14th January 2015, saying that “a medical file listing the reasons why police constable Mario Portelli was boarded out (cleared not to work for medical reasons) from the corps will have to be exhibited in court as part of the case against lawyer and former police inspector David …” It added that “the defence had queried whether Mr Portelli had ever been held at Mount Carmel psychiatric hospital, which the officer denied” and for which, as we read above, a doctor had also testified that he was never a psychiatric patient. The media should be more specific here and specify that, according to information that has reached this site, it was PC99 Mario Portelli himself who asked to be boarded out and this was accepted. And then magistrate Trigona had ordered for Portelli’s medical file to be presented in court. According to information that has reached this site, Mario Portelli was suffering from depression.
And note aside, please note that depression has nothing to do with being a ‘disease of the mind’. Author Jeff Brown wrote that ‘depression is unexpressed, unreleased, and unhealed pain that is held repressed deep within the physical and emotional body.” Let’s face it. PC Mario Portelli was going through a separation and was going through, albeit with an extremely courageous stance, this difficult case. He himself stated, in his letter to Inspector Mercieca, how when he reported the case, he had to do that at his own personal expense, risking his health, his job and everything he had so that he could say that he did the right thing.
How much can a human being take?
But does this still make his evidence less credible, especially when we have had other testimonies? Does still make his evidence less credible, since David Gatt is again now mentioned in the Degiorgios’ press release as having been involved in the cases about which Portelli himself gave evidence of knowledge in the court?
Then we have another paragraph in an article by MaltaToday, dated 1st November 2020, which reads: “But Portelli was then already suffering from mental health problems, with Gatt’s defence alleging that he had been a Mount Carmel psychiatric patient, a fact that would reveal itself years later in his livestreamed rants on Joseph Muscat.” What fact? Didn’t a doctor testify that he was never in Mount Carmel hospital during the trial? So, how can MaltaToday write that “Portelli was then already suffering from mental health problems?” What was the agenda of MaltaToday during this reporting?
Since when has depression been turned into a valid reason for the media to insinuate that Portelli was already suffering from mental health problems during the trial?
And, excuse me, Mario Portelli was arrested and hospitalised in 2019, two years after David Gatt was acquitted from court! Dear readers, putting aside the political allegations that Mario Portelli was making in this video, do you see someone who is suffering from mental health issues? Do you see a doctor in this video? Who gave the orders for Portelli to be hospitalised? What were the true reasons? It would have been more understandable if Portelli was taken to a police station and questioned, and maybe taken to Court to prove his allegations. But why was he hospitalized at Mount Carmel?
Dear readers, considering that David Gatt’s defence had queried whether Mr Portelli had ever been held at Mount Carmel psychiatric hospital, which he had denied and for which, a doctor had also testified that he was never a psychiatric patient, do you smell rats?