Will Herman Grech Tender His Resignation After The Times of Malta Was Ordered to Pay €171,000 to Ivan Camilleri?

NET News has reported that journalist Ivan Camilleri won €171,000 in compensation after The Times of Malta unfairly dismissed him from his position. Camilleri was widely regarded as one of the most incisive investigative journalists at The Times, particularly for his sharp reporting on corruption within Joseph Muscat’s government. With time, his work has been vindicated, as there is widespread acknowledgement that Muscat’s administration was plagued by corruption.

At the heart of this case lies Camilleri’s investigative reporting on Muscat’s government. His dismissal was tied to a story related to Yorgen Fenech. Without delving into the details, it is worth recalling the unproven claim that Camilleri had tipped off Fenech about his impending arrest. Fenech was intercepted at sea while on a routine trip to service his yacht, and in an extraordinary coincidence, another Times of Malta journalist, Jacob Borg, happened to be at Portomaso at around 5 a.m., witnessing and reporting on the event live.

Now, Judge Wenzu Mintoff has ruled that The Times of Malta failed to follow the proper procedures before dismissing Camilleri. Given this ruling, will The Times’ editor-in-chief, Herman Grech, take responsibility and resign for violating fundamental employment rights? Or was Camilleri simply a sacrificial lamb, removed because his investigative stance conflicted with the newspaper’s financial interests?

It is worth noting that Grech’s Times of Malta received government funds to promote a specific agenda. Additionally, Grech personally received financial support from Malta’s Ministry of Culture for one of his plays. Meanwhile, USAID has also been financing journalists, although it remains unclear whether any Times of Malta reporters were among the recipients. What is clear, however, is that Camilleri’s presence had become inconvenient. His removal appears to have been an easy way for The Times to rid itself of a journalist who was seen as an obstacle.

Camilleri was fired without being given the chance to defend himself—a fact stated not by critics but by Judge Wenzu Mintoff himself. The same newspaper that denied a journalist the right to a fair hearing now seeks to lecture the Maltese public on the rule of law.

Will Herman Grech now tender his resignation in light of this damning judgment, which exposes serious failures within The Times of Malta? Or, to borrow from Shakespeare, is it a case of “something rotten in the state of Denmark”?