If there were any doubt left that Malta Today is driven by somebody else’s agenda in the ‘oil trader’ case…

Highly professional behaviour and solidarity among journalists working for the independent media as one of the owners of Malta Today (Saviour Balzan), Malta Today’s editor (Matthew Vella) and Malta Today’s journalist (Miriam Dalli, pocket dog of the prime minister’s head of communications, Kurt Farrugia) lay into Pierre Portelli, director at The Malta Independent, on Twitter because that newspaper had the temerity to interview Malta Today target George Farrugia for his side of the story – which Malta Today failed to do because it doesn’t fit in with the agenda of whoever is supplying them with information.

Let me make this clear: when people give journalists information they often have an agenda. Their agenda does not render the story necessarily suspect or worthless. Sometimes you get the best stories through people who have an agenda. But then the crucial thing is not to follow your informant’s agenda when covering the story, but to cover it objectively and to remember that you are there to serve your readers and not your informants.