Mosta Mayor Paul Chetcuti Caruana this morning ordered council employees to rip pages out of the council's magazine after he objected to an article written by the deputy mayor.

At least six council employees were seen tearing up a page from copies of the magazine and blackening out a paragraph in another page. The torn-out pages were subsequently burnt in a bin. The incident happened in the Greek Theatre of Gnien L-Gharusa tal-Mosta.

Some 7,000 copies of the magazine had been printed.

When confronted by timesofmalta.com about the employees' actions, the mayor refused to comment and referred to a statement issued later.

In the statement, Dr Chetcuti Caruana said he had ordered the Christmas issue of the magazine to be withheld because the article written by Deputy Mayor Josette Agius Decelis constituted an unfair advantage to a member of parliament on the Mosta district.

Ms Agius Decelis's article featured a series of parliamentary questions on Mosta roads put by her husband Labour MP Anthony Agius Decelis to Roads Minister Austin Gatt.

Ms Decelis had ended her article by saying that: "unfortunately (roads in Mosta) were never repaired by the three previous councils and the central government".