Now that's what I call a man of honour
Tammy Wynette may have stood by her man, but Saviour Balzan isn’t standing by his woman – and I mean as an editor, of course. When he was sued for libel as editor of Malta Today alongside his restaurant critic Mona Farrugia, by a man with an Italian name who I assume owns a restaurant she criticised (xi dwejjaq ta’ pajjiz), our moral crusader who packs his pages by chastising others for not doing the right thing persuaded the offended party to drop the suit against him and then promptly washed his hands free of Mona. After accepting her article for publication, and despite being, as editor, exclusively responsible for ensuring that the article is not libellous (as distinct from not exposing the newspaper to a libel suit, which is possible even with matters of opinion and with proven facts in Malta), he swam off and left her to it.
Let me explain to Saviour Balzan how things are done: when a regular columnist or staff journalist is sued personally, the newspaper doesn’t just provide the services of a lawyer. It also pays the costs of fighting the case and, should matters transpire that way, it pays the fines too. This is not just a matter of honour, but also a matter of correct procedure. Newspapers employ editors and sub-editors precisely to avoid these situations. Columnists and staff journalists are not responsible for blue-pencilling their own pieces for libel and slander: editors and sub-editors are, with the assistance, in certain delicate cases, of the newspaper’s legal team. For an editor to publish a piece as it was written, and to then hold up his hands and say ‘I am not responsible; she is’ is complete and utter hogwash because the editor is responsible, both in journalistic practice and at law. Not only is it hogwash, but it is yellow-livered spinelessness. If George W. Bush can be remembered in a positive light about anything at all, it is for the phrase ‘cheese-eating surrender monkey’. That just about sums up Saviour Balzan: a surrender monkey prancing about on a high horse.
Reference 341/2008
Court Of Magistrates (Civil) – Malta
Judiciary Mallia Michael
Sitting Date 01/12/2008
Names Messiano Vincenzo vs Balzan Saviour Et
Verbal Meta ssejhet il-kawza deher Dr Claudio Zammit ghal
konvenut Saviour Balzan.
Il-Qorti rat illi l-kawza giet ceduta fil-konfront ta’ Saviour
Balzan.
Dr Zammit m’huwiex qed jippatrocina l-konvenuta Mona
Sara Farrugia;
Rat illi din tal-ahhar ghadha m’hijiex notifikata.
Il-kawza differita ghal tali notifika ghas-27 ta’ Jannar,
2009 fid-9:00am.
5 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
You’re so right Daphne. You don’t abandon one of your star columnists to her (judicial) fate just like that while you save your skin. No honour, no responsibility, no class. After all he should be more than grateful for the considerable increase in readership that Mona’s column has brought his paper. Miss Farrugia has quite a devoted following, and her restaurant critiques are definitely the sharpest, funniest and most accurate in the Maltese journalistic scene; The Times made a huge blunder when they let her go to replace her with the son of one of the directors (very very poor class from The Sunday Times as well, as the subsequent readership flop shows). What is sadly striking in Saviour is that what he says is most definitely not what he does.
Did you expect anything better from a “journalist” like Saviour Balzan, the voice of the downtrodden and the oppressed in Malta? The guy who harps on about how no libel case will stop him doing his “work”? What a shining example of employer/employee relationship. The guy is nothing but a waste of time and a waste of space, a pompous little piece of s**t who uses his newspaper to rant about and against everyone and everything he does not like, little realising that he is being ignored by everyone.
What did you expect from the editor of this paper? His morals are as strong as a sodden piece of tissue paper. Glad to see you are back from the land of the Moose and the Maple Daph. It seems you do go there quite often. What is it? Your babe cant cope without his mummy ?( I say this in jest).
[Daphne – My ‘babe’ is no longer there. I went to visit a friend who is unwell.]
What’s worrying is that if this is the way he treats his BEST journalist, I shudder to think how he would treat the others. Mona’s page is the only reason I actually buy his rag as she is undoubtedly the best restaurant critic on the island, who would not let anything or anyone stop her from calling a spade a spade.
I think this situation is just ridiculous. How can the best restaurant critic on the island find herself without editorial backing when she is doing her job is unexplainable. It pains me even more to see such a situation for the very simple reason that Mona’s column has been and still is the most followed and talked about food column in Malta. While sometimes our views differ, which is a pretty normal thing considering that everyone at the end of the day has their own opinions, I always find her column to be informative, funny but most of all it has always been honest. At the end of the day it just boils down to people not being able to accept criticism and being willing to go to great lengths in order to keep their eyes closed and not face areas where their restaurant blatantly needs improvement, be it ambience, service or improving what is sometimes just bad food. Mr. Balzan should rethink his position on two fronts. First of all he should practise what he preaches; at the moment he is just showing that he can talk the talk, but not walk the walk. Secondly, I would be more careful in handling my best asset. Particularly when you find yourself having one of the best people working for you and no replacement would even come close to the same level of professionalism, class and style.