I see from your article “Bubble, bubble, is the Akkademja tal-Malti in trouble?” (TMIS, 18 September) that freedom of the press can mean that the editor of a reputable paper feels free to align himself with one party in a dispute not only without hearing the other side of the story but also by choosing to exercise his discretion to effectively deny it the opportunity to reply within the time span that really mattered: for “the next Annual General Meeting” of the Akkademja tal-Malti was not “to be called in a couple of weeks”, as the item innocuously put it, but precisely on the Saturday (24 September) following the appearance of the article on Sunday 18 September, thereby giving the ex-president “a colleague in the same department of Maltese at the University of Malta”, who submitted his nomination for election to president, a gratuitous advantage in the ballot to be held on 24 September by making him appear the victim of a carefully thought out conspiracy – so much for the presumption of good faith on the part of the writer, and even more on that of the instigator.

The sequence of events, meetings and letters referred to in the article make for sad and tedious reading: I will only mention one point. Professor Mifsud challenged above all the legality of the Council’s actions. Had there even been the slightest doubt about this would the members have accepted to rectify certain procedures, and finally admit that the Council had reached its legal limit in terms of the statute? And would President Emeritus Dr U. Mifsud Bonnici have accepted his interim role in overseeing the transition back to legality from the mess the Council had left behind?

Human nature, sadly being what it is, and being all too familiar with the failure of argument and truth to win over minds, I will depart from the thrust of this contribution to proclaim what an honour it has been for me to count myself as a colleague and friend of Professor Mifsud for these last 30 years. Beyond the platitudes about having “our priceless Maltese language at heart”, I have witnessed in person the price he has had to pay both in his career and in his personal life because of his single minded dedication to Maltese – it involved pious words minimally, but professional and tireless action maximally.

Albert Borg

Chairman

Institute of Linguistics Universty of Malta