Church radio journalist Sabrina Agius has described the publication of private e-mail exchanges between herself and Labour leader Joseph Muscat as “unfair and illegal”.
It was the first comment made by Ms Agius after she was suspended from RTK radio pending disciplinary proceedings after the exchange was published and the contents known.
Dr Muscat yesterday insisted that the e-mails had been hacked and not leaked.
“Neither of us gave permission for it to be published... I am sure this is a case of hacking... This is a clear case of theft,” he insisted, adding that he would leave it up to the Speaker of the House of Representatives to decide on the matter.
He said he would reveal information he had if asked to do so by the Speaker. He did not elaborate.
Dr Muscat first made the hacking allegation in Parliament on Wednesday when he raised a breach of privilege complaint after a journalist from Net News asked him about the email exchange.
Media Link head of news Nathaniel Attard justified publication of the e-mail exchange on the basis of their public interest.
The correspondence showed Dr Muscat telling Ms Agius that the party “needs” her in the position she occupied at RTK, though he also expressed the wish that she joined The Times or national broadcaster PBS.
When she told him she was considering resigning, Dr Muscat urged her to stick to her job. She also told him he could give her tip-offs for stories.
Asked whether he believed he had acted unethically in what he said in the e-mails, Dr Muscat yesterday dodged the question saying: “What I think is that what was surely unethical was stealing those e-mails.”
“I surely did not plant Ms Agius at RTK. I surely did not speak to anyone so that she is employed at The Times or PBS,” he said, adding that the management of the three media houses could confirm this.
The government has denied hacking and pointed out that the e-mails were on Ms Agius’s gmail account and Dr Muscat’s josephmuscat.com account, not gov.mt. The state IT agency, Mita, categorically excluded that Dr Muscat’s gov.mt account had been hacked.
Commenting about this, Dr Muscat said yesterday he could not understand Mita’s reaction because no one had implied it was involved in any way.
A Labour Party spokesman later described Dr Muscat’s relationship with Ms Agius as a “long-term friendship – nothing more” adding that the hacking was “part of a political vendetta of the worst kind”.
The spokesman said Dr Muscat regularly corresponded with journalists from various newsrooms.
“The fact that a (former) Net journalist (reference to Josianne Camilleri) is head of news at RTK could be considered as planting of a journalist. Having publicly-paid journalists at PBS (reference to Peppi Azzopardi) to coach Nationalist Party politicians (reference to Mr Azzopardi’s admission that he gave tips to MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando on how to face former Labour leader Alfred Sant) in the midst of an electoral campaign could be considered as having journalists in strategic positions...,” he said.
“Or a journalist who has a record for being unbalanced on state TV and is given a couple of programmes a week (reference to Lou Bondi and his programme Bondìplus) can be considered as biased or manipulating journalists
“These are facts that happened and are still happening. That is what can be called planting of journalists not encouraging someone to keep her job or apply for jobs at PBS or The Times.”