Church radio journalist Sabrina Agius has asked the police to investigate the way personal e-mail correspondence between her and Labour leader Joseph Muscat was taken from her computer and distributed to the media.
I hope that... it will emerge who carried out what is ultimately a crime
Ms Agius, through her lawyers, filed a formal request to the Police Commissioner asking him to investigate “computer misuse” after both she and Dr Muscat said they had not granted their permission for the e-mail exchange to go public.
“I hope that, as a result of this investigation, it will emerge who carried out what is ultimately a crime,” the journalist said, adding that she preferred not to give further comments at this stage.
The correspondence, which was made public by the Nationalist media, 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 join The Times or state 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.
IT experts, who spoke to The Sunday Times, said it was likely that Ms Agius left her Gmail page open on her work computer while she was out and someone printed her exchange with the Labour leader.
Dr Muscat raised a breach of privilege in Parliament last week claiming that the private e-mail exchange between him and Ms Agius landed in the hands of the PN media as a result of computer hacking because neither he nor Ms Agius had released the correspondence. Media Link head of news Nathaniel Attard justified publication of the e-mail exchange saying it was in the public interest.
Ms Agius was suspended from RTK the following day and is facing internal disciplinary proceedings.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi questioned why Dr Muscat took the issue to Parliament rather than resort to the police. He accused Dr Muscat of choosing not to refer to the police because he wanted to divert attention away from the content of the e-mails.
Arthur Azzopardi and Emmanuel Mallia filed Ms Agius’s application.