The full weight of the government’s anger and shame following a weekend of wall-to-wall criticism of Malta by the international press regarding Malta’s handling of asylum seekers, is now focusing on the man who claims he will be joining Al Jazeera’s news team.

Karl Stagno Navarra, former PN media newscaster and journalist and, till the end of this month (he was reported to have handed in his resignation on Friday week) a reporter with MaltaToday and Illum, found himself in the spotlight following an unsigned article in last Sunday’s MaltaToday in which it was claimed that the Prime Minister’s press secretary, Josephine Vassallo, went ballistic yesterday week amid the international media onslaught and called TG5 journalist Valentina Loiero to demand a correction.

Ms Vassallo herself confirmed to this newspaper that she did call Ms Loiero but claimed that as soon as the conversation between them was over, Mr Stagno Navarra called her (Ms Vassallo) and seemed to know what the conversation was about.

The MaltaToday article claimed Ms Vassallo demanded that Ms Loiero reveal her sources, something Ms Vassallo flatly denies. It seems, however, that Ms Vassallo did ask Ms Loiero when she had last contacted the head of the Maltese armed forces, Commander Carmel Vassallo.

Ms Vassallo also denied calling the UNHCR representative in Malta and accusing him of passing inaccurate information to the press.

Mr Stagno Navarro was highly critical of Ms Vassallo, and of Parliamentary Secretary Tony Abela, when he took part in Brian Hansford’s Realta on Smash TV on Monday.

The core of the issue is: where did the international media get its information that the Maltese government had refused to allow a French naval vessel to land 18 bodies of presumed asylum seekers who were found floating in the sea, some in, some out of the Maltese Search and Rescue area?

After a delay of more than 24 hours, the government of Malta got around to denying the allegation, but the damage was done. Now the search is for “the mole”. It is unclear where the report surfaced first. It was thought that it had first come out in the French media, an explanation that is readily understandable given the nationality of the naval vessel, but some have said it first appeared in Italian news agency reports and this is where Mr Stagno Navarra’s claimed friendship with Italian media comes in.