Karl Stagno Navarra: busy brown-nosing his employers in the Labour skip

Just read this unbelievable article, brown-nosing Joseph Muscat, in the Times of Malta. In the customary footnote, Karl Stagno Navarra, who wrote the piece, describes himself – and the newspaper allowed him to do so – as “a journalist specialised in euro-area governments for Bloomberg News and a current affairs programme presenter on One Television”.

But he’s not, is he? He’s paid by the government of Malta. That’s his main source of income, and ‘One TV’ is the Labour Party television station.

Muscat’s government Stagno Navarra on the state payroll at Malta Enterprise early in 2014, ostensibly to take care of “media relations” for Malta’s participation in the Malta Expo. Never was there a more pointless full-time job with a full-time salary and perks.

When the Milan Expo ended, Stagno Navarra was transferred to another area of the public teat, as yet another (sleazy) aide to the Prime Minister. He travelled to Italy with the Prime Minister and Kurt Farrugia for their meeting with Matteo Renzi, the Italian PM.

For some reason, it has escaped the attention of the press in general that Karl Stagno Navarra works Prime Minister Muscat, and they keep referring to him as a “journalist”. He is as much of a journalist as Glenn Bedingfield is. They do the same jobs for the Prime Minister and the Labour Party’s broadcaster.

Stagna Navarra tries to keep secret the fact that he is on the state payroll – when I rang him about his Malta Enterprise salary, he was very, very upset – because Bloomberg, for which he is a stringer, doesn’t like its stringers to be government apparatchiks (for reasons that will be obvious). Last April I asked whether Bloomberg knows its Malta stringer is a government tool.

Earlier this year, the television presenter Stephanie Chircop won libel damages from him, but he hasn’t paid her yet despite reminders. She’s going to need a lot of creativity to get her money, as a sizeable army of other people will tell her.

By their aides shall ye know them: and just look at Joseph Muscat’s.

Karl Stagno Navarra