Jason Micallef has confirmed that as part-time chairman of the Valletta 2018 Foundation, he will retain his full-time post as chairman of the Labour Party’s television station, but sees no conflict of interest in these roles.
Mr Micallef told Times of Malta he had no idea when he would take up his role as V-18 chairman on a full-time basis and relinquish his One TV post.
“No dates have been set as yet – but it will happen as the event draws near: the Prime Minister explained this,” he said.
If you are professional in your attitude, there should never be any conflict of interest
V-18 is the name of the foundation preparing Valletta to be the European Capital of Culture in 2018.
Earlier this month Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that, when Mr Micallef officially takes over the post full-time , he would have to resign his chairmanship of One Productions.
Mr Micallef said he felt there was “no conflict of interest whatsoever” between the two posts.
“If you are professional in your attitude, there should never be any conflict of interest,” he said.
He said the previous V-18 chairman, David Felice, also had a full-time job other than his chairmanship.
“His post was not full-time... so what about him? Did he not have any conflict of interest with his full-time job?”
When it was pointed out that Mr Felice did not head a political station but was an architect and his full-time job had nothing to do with politics, Mr Micallef said: “Up till a few months ago, we had government MPs chairing government entities. Is that a conflict? I’m asking you, tell me: isn’t that a conflict?”
Mr Micallef insisted that from the moment he was appointed he declared on Facebook that he would be refraining from commenting on political issues.
“Are you aware that I even stopped writing for L-Orizzont? That’s something that I had been doing for many years – but I gave it up because of my new role.”
Why did he feel the need to take a step back from political commentary but not from manning a political station?
“There is no conflict of interest at all,” he repeated.
In a filmed interview on the Newsbook website on Sunday, Mr Micallef said that Mr Felice had accepted to be one of the directors on the V-18 board and that the number of board members was going to be increased from six to 10 “to involve other people whose contribution in the cultural field is worth taking on board”.
He said that each board member was paid €1,000 a year.
Mr Micallef contested the last general election unsuccessfully but in the interview shrugged off criticism that his appointment was a form of appeasement on the part of the Prime Minister.
Times of Malta sent questions to the office of the Prime Minister asking if he felt there was a conflict of interest in the dual roles of Mr Micallef, but questions were unanswered by the time of printing.
Asked earlier this month why it was felt that Mr Felice should be changed, Dr Muscat had replied, “Why not?”