Sant accuses PN of plan to disrupt press conference

Labour leader Alfred Sant charged this afternoon that his scheduled televised press conference on PBS was intentionally disrupted by the PN in what amounted to a shameful provocative act.

Dr Sant said the Broadcasting Authority had told the MLP that the PN media was to be represented at the press conference by Amanda but when he called at the PBS studios he found PN candidate Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando had turned up instead.

BA rules laid down that general election and local council election candidates could not participate in such press conferences, Dr Sant said.

But Dr Pullicino Orlando started behaving in a "hysterical way" and insisted he was being victimized.

Dr Sant said that at a meeting between PN and MLP representatives and the chairman of the Broadcasting Authority, the chairman, Joe Scicluna, remarked that Dr Pullicino Orlando had replaced Ms Ciappara at the last minute, adding that election candidates could not participate in such press conferences.

Dr Pullicino Orlando, however, insisted that he still wanted to take part so that, Dr Sant said " he could answer for the Mistra scandal"

Dr Sant said he could not understand how Dr Pullicino Orlando wanted to answer for the scandal when this was a press conference, not a debate. It was clear, he said, that this was a plan for the press conference to be disrupted.

Dr Sant said that since Dr Pullicino Orlando absolutely refused to accept the BA ruling that he had no right to attend the press conference as a journalist, he (Dr Sant) had not other choice but to leave the studios.

Dr Sant said that what happened today was a provocative act. He recalled that some days ago, while he was speaking at Zebbug, Net TV journalists had gone into the crowd and started to question people.

At a PN activity at Villa Arrigo, a One News crew were not allowed to leave the building.

Dr Sant said he would continue to say all the facts about the Mistra scandal and Dr Pullicino Orlando could have been sent by the PN to one of the Broadcasting Authority's debates, had it wanted to.

He said the MLP would not fall for such provocations and he was recommending to everyone to stay calm.