Important advice for journalists in the Allied Newspapers newsroom

Your sources and information are not safe if they are freely discussed in that building or with your colleagues. Do not use the office computers for important stories related to the government. Work only on your personal laptops or devices and take them home with you at night.

If you are investigating Keith Schembri, the Prime Minister or Konrad Mizzi, keep it close to your chest and do not discuss the stories or any leads you are following in newsroom brainstorming sessions. Do not trust anyone. If your stories are challenged by editors or anyone in authority, demand to know why.

Sabotage of stories is only one problem. The major problem you are dealing with is the protection of your sources. Your sources have to stay with you and you alone. If they go beyond you to anyone else at Allied Newspapers, they are vulnerable to exposure to the Prime Minister and his chief of staff.

I cannot tell you how and why I know this, but please take it on board and take it seriously. Trust nobody in that building except yourself. You may be able to trust a fellow journalist but you have no idea whether that other journalist thinks he or she can trust a member of the upper management and so unwittingly betray a source or the evolvement of your story.