Former EU Commissioner and PN Minister John Dalli has refused to hand over the 90 articles he says were published in The Malta Independent and The Times attacking him prior to his resignation as Minister of Foreign Affairs in July 2004.

Mr Dalli claims to have been the victim of "coordinated media attacks" against him, orchestrated in particular by the two aforementioned papers.

When contacted by The Malta Independent and asked for a copy of the articles in question, Mr Dalli refused, saying he will be presenting them all in court.

In a press release last week, Mr Dalli made reference to the libel case filed by former EU ambassador Richard Cachia Caruana against Malta Today managing editor Saviour Balzan, Mr Dalli said he was asked to give his testimony on 27 June.

In the cross-examination on 6 October, Dr Joe Zammit Maempel, who is defending Mr Cachia Caruana, challenged John Dalli's claims on what led to his resignation in 2004 and exhibited in court an article that was published in The Times on 25 July 2004 written by Steve Mallia.

Dr Zammit Maempel said that this was the only article Mr Mallia had written about Mr Dalli in the context of the fraud case brought against Mr Dalli in 2004, which had forced his resignation from Minister in the Lawrence Gonzi Cabinet.

Mr Dalli said that a search in the digital archives of the Times in the June July 2004 period shows more than 50 articles against him, five written by Steve Mallia.

In the same period, Dalli says there were 40 articles published in The Malta Independent, sometimes with the same headline as that of The Times.

In those months there was also reporting by Ivan Camilleri, then a PBS journalist, and in one occasion he had read a report that had appeared in The Times. There was also an attack against me from Lou Bondi, Mr Dalli claimed.

"It was in this light that I spoke of a coordinated attack against me," Mr Dalli said, adding that he will elaborate on the issue when he will continue testifying in court.

In court Dr Zammit Maempel challenged John Dalli to find a single article published before his resignation that made reference in any way to the fraudulent claims made by private investigator Joe Zahra who Dalli claimed was the cause of his downfall. Dr Zammit Maempel pointed out to Dalli that there were no such articles published before his resignation and the only article about Joe Zahra published by journalist Steve Mallia appeared three weeks after John Dalli's resignation and it had made no reference to Dalli.

This article in fact stated that a private investigator (later identified as Joe Zahra) was expected to be prosecuted and included a comment from the Prime Minister's spokesman that confirmed that allegations made in the report were unfounded.

Last week, precisely on 17 October 2014, John Dalli issued a press statement referring to an affidavit made by him seven days before. This affidavit refers to a number of articles that in Dalli's opinion support his claim that The Times had carried articles linking him to Joe Zahra's fraudulent claims. Yet a simple read through these articles referred to by Mr Dalli in his affidavit and which appeared before his 2004 resignation has anything to do with Joe Zahra or any fraud related to Zahra. 

In his testimony of 27 June 2014 Mr Dalli had claimed that his resignation in 2004 was caused by the claims made by Joe Zahra in his regard and pushed by The Times and The Malta Independent as part of a campaign against him.

The articles Mr Dalli referred to in the affidavit issued to the press on 17 October 2014 deal with the ticketing scandal and the Iranian shipping line. In fact, during his testimony on 27 June 2014, Mr Dalli had not even mentioned the ticketing scandal or the Iranian shipping line as having anything to do with his 2004 resignation or with any claimed campaign against him.