Here is the strange piece by an austere-looking Marie Benoit mentioning me in Malta Independent Online.

And here is the message I sent yesterday to Ms Benoit and others at MIO, plus to the website of Daphne Caruana Galizia who also writes for the Malta Independent media family.

As far as I can see, my clarification has not appeared anywhere online (yet).

Thus:

Dear Ms Benoit (and other senior colleagues at Malta Independent Online),

I have just read your article entitled Marie Benoit’s Diary on your website, dated 2 April. It includes various references to myself, concluding thus:

How can I believe that Charles Crawford came here simply to teach English?

As far as I know, no-one from your newspaper has contacted me to ask any questions on the matter. I am baffled at the fact that my name keeps being mentioned in connection with Maltese politics. This entry on my own website described what happened:

https://charlescrawford.biz/blog/help-i-ve-entered-a-parallel-universe-

In any case, for the record:

  • I am NOT the Malta Prime Minister’s or any other Malta politician’s consultant
  • I am not a ‘spin-doctor’
  • I have had no contact in person or by email or on the telephone or otherwise with any Maltese official (or indeed any Maltese person or anyone else) about anything to do with moving Maltese MPs into government Ministries (“the parliamentary assistant proposal” as mentioned in your article) or anything else to do with Malta’s internal politics.
  • If a foreign adviser suggested any ‘parliamentary assistant proposal’, that foreign adviser was not me.

The facts are simple. I came to Malta to give a number of officials some sessions on diplomatic communications training on 23-24 February. Then I went home. That was all. Since my visit to Malta I have been part of a team which gave highly rated diplomatic communications training to European Commission officials in Brussels.

I will be delighted to return to Malta to give further training courses in expert communication skills should the government, the opposition or your own newspaper or anyone else wish to engage me.

May I ask that you publish this clarification so that your readers can be made aware what happened? I am sending a copy of this email message to the website of Ms Daphne Caruana Galizia as I gather that she also writes for your newspaper and this issue has been mentioned on her site too.

Many thanks in advance,

Charles Crawford