Editor-in-chief of newspapers L-Orizzont and it-Torċa Victor Vella has been suspended by Union Print, owner of the newspapers. The writer was suspended last month after he refused to stop publishing stories about workers’ rights, migration and other social injustices. The suspension was revealed by Newsbook on Sunday evening.

Vella will be facing disciplinary proceedings, risking being sacked from the post after a 27-year journalism career. Union Print is owned by the General Workers Union and union President Victor Carachi is listed as the publisher’s sole director. A GWU spokesperson however denied that the suspension had any link to the newspaper’s editorial line and described it as a purely administrative matter. 

The GWU spokesperson said that the union would be assisting Vella in his disciplinary proceedings with Union Print, its own subsidiary. Despite denial by the GWU, sources close to the newspapers informed Times of Malta that persons high up in the union were unhappy with Vella’s editorial policy on social issues as it ‘put the government in bad light.’

Both l-Orizzont and it-Torċa ran stories about people working on low salaries and in precarious situations. They also wrote about people struggling to cope with rising costs of living, people facing housing difficulties, migration and a report on the urge in food prices in supermarkets. 

After newspapers were issued, the newsroom would get calls from above and be pressured to stop publishing such stories, with migration being one of their biggest bones of contention. Vella declined to comment pending disciplinary proceedings when contacted by Times of Malta. 

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