Allow me to put the record straight following the article entitled MP asks namesake to change his name (TMIS, 28 February).

Upon reading the article, the ordinary reasonable reader might interpret the article to mean that as soon as people in the street started asking me (as did Noel Grima) whether I was going to present the Malta Eurosong Contest, I messaged Mr Owen Bonnici (the actor), asking him to change his name so that people don’t mix us up.

This is simply not true. It’s false. Period.

For the sake of completeness, and so that the reader gets the whole picture, however, I would like to point out a fact. In my university days, before Malta joined the EU, before I obtained my warrant as a lawyer and before I was elected to Parliament, I used to help finance my studies by working as a contributor to a number of media, mainly di-ve.com, Campus FM and l’orizzont as a media practitioner.

Around about that period, Mr Owen Bonnici also started to ply his trade in the media – at first, if I am not mistaken, on a Cottonera-based radio station. Since we both were working in the same line of employment at the time, at the suggestion of one of my bosses who had contract issues in mind, I wrote to Mr Bonnici, asking him if we could come to an agreement on a mode of differentiation between one media practitioner and the other.

Of course, this is all in the past. I am no longer plying my trade on the media scene and have, since then, actively engulfed myself in politics.

I take the opportunity to congratulate Mr Owen Bonnici on his wonderful talent and his unique presentation skills and wish him the very best in the splendid future that lies ahead of him in the media industry.

Owen Bonnici

ZEJTUN