Text of the Right of Reply to yesterday’s story – The lavish life of the Muscats: at least €64,000 worth of accessories, €16,000 on flights in two years – is as follows:
“You sent an email late on 21 November void of any deadline for replies and published an article in 24 hours without waiting for a reply. (…)
In your email dated November 21st, you mentioned a “list” dating after the time when Dr. Muscat served as Prime Minister while asking the question ‘How can you afford to pay for all these items, especially when considering that you were on a €63,000 salary as prime minister?’
As per your claim, this information was sourced from publicly available data. It is reasonable to assume that you would have also come across publicly accessible information regarding Dr. Muscat’s income after his tenure in office. This information has been lawfully documented in Parliament and reported in the media. Hence, it should sufficiently address your query. (…)
Moreover, the list you provided contains erroneous assumptions, such as including trips where Dr. Muscat was invited to attend conferences with expenses covered. Additionally, the list inaccurately presents the items and their corresponding prices.” (…)
The text sent in earlier this morning by disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat through his lawyer Charlon Gouder is only here partially reproduced to the extent that it contains a statement by way of contradiction or explanation. Those parts of the text which do not provide a statement of this type have not been published.
Following, receipt of this request two amendments to the original article were made. The original article is now amended to refer to the Malta Professional Football Clubs Association as opposed to the erroneous reference originally made to the Malta Football Association. The original article now refers to Muscat’s declared income and savings of €50,000 and €75,000 respectively, rather than consider his income to be equivalent to that declared by Robert Abela for the post of Prime Minister.
