The former spokesman of the Archbishop's Curia has spoken out about what he described as "dangerous spin doctor tactics" and "scheming behind his back" before he stepped down from the post last April.

Writing in today's The Sunday Times (found here: http://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090621/opinion/the-church-and-spinning-schemes ), Charles Buttigieg said he felt "very concerned" when some years ago he learnt that somebody had a plan of action to leak information to a particular journalist. When contacted yesterday, Mr Buttigieg, who had served as the Curia's public relations officer since 1987, declined to divulge any further details of the instance he refers to in his article.

But he said did not believe giving exclusivity to particular journalists was good under normal circumstances.

Asked whether there were any other incidents when somebody went behind his back to leak additional information to journalists, Mr Buttigieg said he only recalled that one case.