Muscat’s contempt for the media: ignores interview invitation from The Malta Independent

Joseph Muscat and his aides have ignored an invitation to be interviewed by The Malta Independent.

The newspaper reports that Muscat, back in January – long before the Egrant Inc/Pilatus Bank scandals broke and way ahead of the news of a general election – had turned down a similar request with a rude, hostile one-line message directly from him and not through an aide: “I won’t beat about the bush. No.”

Given the Prime Minister’s notorious failure to use punctuation or capital letters in emails and messages, I would say that this was more likely to have been “i wont beat about the bush no” and the newspaper is being civilised about it, though in their position I would reproduce his message exactly as it was received.

The Malta Independent also reports that requests for interviews with Mrs Muscat, made through her aides, were ignored too.