Nationalist MP Franco Debono has revealed that last Saturday he had received a death threat but, after the police traced the perpetrator, he had forgiven him.

Dr Debono made the revelation when he raised a breach of privilege complaint against PBS, against Pierre Portelli, producer of the TV programme Close Up, and against participant Andrew Borg Cardona for insulting him.

Declaring that national broadcasting was being reduced the same level it was in the 1980s, Dr Debono said Mr Portelli, former president of the PN administrative council, was doing the Prime Minister’s dirty work. He had allowed a clip in his programme during which Dr Borg Cardona described Dr Debono as an insolent and vulgar person.

Dr Borg Cardona, he said, was a ‘poodle” in the hands of Mr Richard Cachia Caruana, Malta’s former ambassador to the EU.

He said that there was a limit to what he could tolerate as he had been persecuted by Dr Borg Cardona for a long time because he had lost confidence in Dr Gonzi.

He said that Dr Borg Cardona, whom he claimed had been found guilty of breaching data protection, formed part of a clique which was attacking him in the media.

Dr Debono said that he was given police protection eight months ago “because of what has been written about me by Daphne Caruana Galizia, Lou Bondì and Andrew Borg Cardona who all support the Prime Minister”.

Pointing to the prime minister, Dr Debono said the country was being further divided. There were people known for the confrontational attitude that were inciting and insulting him on PBS. He accused Dr Gonzi of fostering such hatred.

Mr Speaker Dr Michael Frendo reminded Dr Debono that he could not attribute bad motives to members of the House. The Speaker also warned him not to pass any comments.

Presenting a copy of the programme, Dr Debono said that Mr Portelli lacked journalistic ethics because he knew beforehand what the clip consisted of. The least he could have done was to ask for his reaction in the same programme.

The Speaker said that he would give a ruling at a later stage.

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