Saviour Balzan, Managing Editor of Malta Today, has filed a declaration in court announcing that he is retracting allegations made against Richard Cachia Caruana, where he claimed Mr Cachia Caruana used to call on bloggers and columnists to “dish out bile and hate”.
The declaration by Mr Balzan, which was filed on 18 February reads: “I refer to the article written by me and published on MaltaToday on 25 May 2009 under the heading: ‘Why people will protest and simply NOT vote’ and I declare that I am retracting the allegations made by me about Richard Cachia Caruana in this article and I admit that what I alleged with the following ‘RCC acts as he has always acted, secretly calling on his army of sycophants to dish out bile and hate from their blogs and columns. They incite hatred and attempt to decimate any critics’ was unfounded and incorrect in relation to Richard Cachia Caruana.
It continues: “I am therefore retracting all I wrote and alleged in the same article as nothing negative can be said about Richard Cachia Caruana’s integrity and upright behaviour throughout his career.”
“I declare that I have accepted to pay Richard Cachia Caruana’s legal costs in relation to these libel proceedings as well as make a donation to the charitable institution chosen by Richard Cachia Caruana which is Dar tal-Providenza.”
In the meantime Mr Balzan this morning called this newsroom to deny that he agreed to retract the claims made against Mr Cachia Caruana. In very colourful language Mr Balzan, who is also a current affairs producer and presenter on the national station TVM, threatened to take matters further if the story published in The Malta independent was not withdrawn. He then uploaded the denial on his portal.
Official court documents carrying the Registry’s stamp and signature of the Deputy Registrar on 18 February show that Mr Balzan, through his lawyer Dr Veronique Dalli, gave the go-ahead to retract all allegations made on 25 May 2009 against Mr Cachia Caruana. A copy of the document obtained by The Malta Independent is being reproduced here.
Court document in pdf
