One of the best things to watch is when members of different gangs and cults turn and fight against each other while you watch and wonder how come from best buddies they have turned into fierce enemies.
I am not referring to gang wars in dark alleys downtown. I am referring to verbal wars that gangs of hypocrites, narcissists, the proud and arrogant, the hungry-for-power, the hungry-for-money, those with ulterior agendas, rent-seekers, the two-faced, apparatchiks or a mix of any of this buffet, have. And the best thing about these verbal wars is that we, the outsiders, get to know a lot of information which we would have never known if it weren’t for these same verbal wars of such gangs.
This was the case between Saviour Balzan and Mark Camilleri. In their back and forth verbal wars, we get to know the following about Camilleri which Balzan published in his article “When Mark Camilleri asked me for a €100,000 interest-free loan.” This article was in response to the fact that Camilleri had published a set of chats between Saviour Balzan and Yorgen Fenech.
“Mark Camilleri, the former Book Council CEO, is not a journalist; he is a literary terrorist.
He does not distinguish between news and gossip and is hungry for money and is simply driven by hate, retribution, blackmail and clickbait.
In July 2013 after years hitting out at the Nationalist administration, he was given a direct appointment as the CEO of the National Book Council by Joseph Muscat himself.
There was no call for applications, but a direct appointment. I guess that is OK for Mark but not for others.
In 2013, Camilleri thought Muscat was God’s gift to mankind. Many people did. Those who made the wrong judgements, including myself will have to live with it for the rest of their life. But at least I can admit to making a bad judgement.
Until 2021, well after the Panama Papers scandal, the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and the arrest of Yorgen Fenech, Camilleri kept his well-oiled position at the Book Council, until he was unceremoniously removed from the post under Robert Abela.
Plagued with financial problems of his own including some very bad trades with crypto currencies (one of the most dubious forms of financial dealings around) he moved to Spain and from his abode he started a blog venting his anger against everything associated with Robert Abela and anyone he simply did not like.
I never engaged or confronted him. When he asked me for a donation for his book – A rent seeker’s Paradise – I unwisely donated €250. Well before that when he applied for a job as a journalist to work with MaltaToday I had interviewed him. I did not take him on.
My only mistake was accepting to interview him.
Sponsorships from ministers
Mark Camilleri’s financial pressures have made him turn on people. He has been receiving sponsorships/donations from some ministries and ministers after he personally pestered them. If you want to know who these ministers are all you need to do is check out who is portrayed in a good light on his blog and who is not mentioned at all.
Earlier last year, he made it known to one of the editors at MaltaToday that he was in possession of Yorgen Fenech chats with me and that he would publish them. He went into a rant about MaltaToday receiving government funds (everyone does) and how he does not. How he is based in Spain, operating a one-man show and basing his writing on mudslinging – all of which was of course beside the point.
When he faced a criminal reprimand from the courts that he was publishing privileged information unrelated to the Yorgen Fenech case, he retreated but pestered my editors that he wanted to talk to me.
What followed were long emails about how much he loved me and respected me but that he disagreed with MaltaToday accepting support from the State (in the form of advertising, may I add).
I have no qualms saying that I do not love him, in fact I find him revolting, repulsive and sickening.
But the cherry on the cake came when he asked me for €100,000. I asked him to put his demand in an email. I reproduce the email Mark Camilleri sent me below, verbatim:
‘I can offer a long-term partnership and an alliance against loan funding of €100,000. I can become a regular columnist for MaltaToday contributing a hard-hitting and good column every Sunday. This will elevate MaltaToday above all other papers with my value and as a result and increase your numbers significantly. I will be directing my traffic to MaltaToday. So, instead of paying high interest rates for the loan, I’ll provide you with contributions and collaboration. You would be making money on the loan and getting valuable contributions.
The arrangement would be similar to the one that Daphne had with the Malta Independent where she has her own operation going on, but at the same time contributes every Sunday to the newspaper and collaborates closely with the newsroom.
I am so far Malta’s only investigative journalist who understands finance deeply well. For example, I am the only investigative journalist who is investigating Bank of Valletta. Malta lacks proper financial journalism, and I can provide this to you.
Thank you and look forward to keep building our relationship together.‘
I did not accept to give Mark Camilleri, a wannabee Daphne, one euro cent let alone €100,000. And I will not even consider it in 100 years.
Soon after, when it was clear that there would no loan advanced from my part, Mark Camilleri launched a tirade against me and MaltaToday, accusing me of all sorts of things. His most popular was and is that I was ‘sleeping’ in the same bed as Robert Abela.
Last year, Camilleri had written to the Committee of Media experts, asking about my credentials and together with the holier than thou bunch, promoted the image that I was a stooge for government.
I thank the committee’s chairman, retired judge Michael Mallia (who also led the Caruana Galizia public inquiry) for having stood up for me.
At the end of the day, the committee’s proposals are there for all to see. They are radical, far reaching and in favour of true freedom. The final report, which was eventually tabled in parliament last October, addresses most of the grievances that had been raised and proposes the necessary steps to have a free and healthy press.”
In yesterday’s Times of Malta article, we read that sly Camilleri wrote on his Facebook page that: “MaltaToday as a Labour Party newspaper has done its best to consistently attack and smear me while ignoring my investigative stories.”
As the typical narcissist and hypocrite that he is, he forgot to add that he also consistently attacked and smeared Malta Today.
As the typical narcissist that he is, he is indirectly telling you that he is pissed off that Malta Today does not give him the attention he needs while he craves for popularity and to be seen as an investigative journalist, which he isn’t.
And as the typical narcissist and hypocrite that he is, he forgot to add that he is considering becoming a Labour Party funded employee, while he has done his best to consistently attack and smear anyone he hates and anything and everything associated with Robert Abela, “driven by hate, blackmail and clickbait” which he does in a revolting, repulsive and sickening way.