Government of Malta falsely says that Cardona acted in his “personal capacity”, when all his statements about the matter were released through the government’s Department of Information

In its formal reply to the complaints received from the European Federation of Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists, the International Press Institute, Index on Censorship and the Committee to Protect Journalists, the government of Malta opened by saying:

In the first place the Government wishes to clarify that the garnishee orders complained about were not issued by the Government itself but were issued personally by Dr Christian Cardona, Minister for the Economy, and Dr Joe Gerada in their personal capacity in relation to civil libel actions which they filed against Mrs Daphne Caruana Galizia, who carries a hate blog in Malta.

This is a complete lie. The Minister for the Economy acted entirely in his capacity as a government minister and never made the slightest attempt to distinguish between the official and the personal, as he should have done. In addition to that, a government minister is a member of the government whatever he does, which is exactly why he has to watch his actions and choices.

In fact, the press releases which Cardona issued about the subject, where issued in an official capacity under the name of his Ministry and released to all media via the GOVERNMENT’S Department of Information, using a clearly fascist tone and abusively inappropriate, degrading terminology. See the link here.