Allied Newspapers Ltd’s board of directors has opened an inquiry following “very serious allegations” made in public.
In a report on The Times website, the board is quoted as saying after it held a meeting that it “has decided to investigate these serious allegations through an independent inquiry.
"The company stresses that the inquiry is a measure of good governance and in no way is it accepting the veracity of these allegations.
“In accordance with best practice, and in agreement with the incumbent, the managing director (Adrian Hillman) will be taking leave until the conclusions are considered by the board.
“Michel Rizzo has been appointed acting managing director.”
In a blog yesterday, Daphne Caruana Galizia, referred to the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, and holdings in the British Virgin Islands and then added: “There is far more to this story and it involves Allied Newspapers Ltd, publishers of the Times of Malta and The Sunday Times of Malta, directly impacting on the credibility of those two newspapers in the run-up to the general election of 2013, with graft in high places.”
In a statement, editors Steve Mallia, Ray Bugeja and Herman Grech said: “We are as concerned as anybody about the allegations being made in relation to the managing director of Allied Newspapers Ltd, publisher of the Times of Malta and The Sunday Times of Malta.
“However, we wish to state and reaffirm in the strongest possible terms the unique nature of the Times of Malta’s structure: whereby the commercial side of the organisation is distinct from editorial and that the editors therefore enjoy full independence in their day to day decisions in respect of the newspaper.
“Never has a commercial consideration motivated an editorial decision, never mind a political one.
“We want to make it crystal clear that although, as with any other organisation, the editors dialogue with the management of the company, including the managing director, the management have never imposed editorial decisions. Those are the sole discretion of the editor.”