The GSLP has said that the “attack” on The New People by Together Gibraltar “gets all of the facts wrong and reaches all the wrong conclusions.”

A statement from the party issued this afternoon continued:

“First of all, TG are wrong to say that absence of by-lines, where a journalist’s name appears under an article, is somehow wrong. The most respected economic and political magazine in Europe, if not the world, The Economist, is presented with articles without by-lines. The same is true of reporting on the BBC website, where most articles appear without attribution.

“Secondly, TG seem to forget that their leader, Ms Hassan Nahon, fought the 2013 by-election defending the GSD practice of giving the ‘7 Days’ newspaper over £100,000.00 in one year, more money than had been paid to the Gibraltar Chronicle that year, in advertising. That newspaper was, purely and simply, an attack sheet against the GSLP and Fabian Picardo in particular. Now Ms Hassan Nahon thinks that bringing back a level playing field and allowing Gibraltar’s oldest weekly newspaper to access a proportionate Government advertising, is somehow wrong. The hypocrisy is that Ms Hassan Nahon is one day defending giving £100,000.00 to a newspaper that supports her party, then the GSD and now thinking that there is something wrong with the New People ending the GSD boycott and getting £7,000.00.

“Thirdly, Mr Picardo does not own the shares of the New People beneficially. He holds them on trust for the executive committee and members of the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party.

“Finally, Together Gibraltar asks that it should be confirmed that Fabian Picardo writes in the New People. It has, in fact, repeatedly been confirmed that the New People is written by an editorial board and by members of the GSLP executive committee under Antonio Rocca as its editor. Mr Rocca has been involved in the publication of newspapers in Gibraltar since the 1970s. Moreover, in the meeting of Parliament held last July on the Budget, Mr Picardo himself confirmed that he writes in the New People. Mr Daniel Feetham, Ms Hassan Nahon’s party leader in the GSD, also confirmed that he wrote in the New People under a pseudonym, ‘Socialist Worker.’ It is therefore a little surprising that Ms Hassan Nahon’s party should be seeking confirmation of what was already publicly confirmed in her presence in Parliament less than 5 months ago.”

The Chairman of the GSLP, Pepe Baldachino, said: ‘I am not surprised Together Gibraltar are attacking the New People. None of our opponents have ever been able to maintain their own newspaper. They do not like the analysis that appears in the New People and which shows up their hypocrisy. One thing is clear though, the GSD and Together Gibraltar are united in wanting to silence a critical press. Last week Ms Hassan Nahon was telling GBC journalists what headlines to write. This week she is trying to silence the New People, just like Peter Caruana tried to do. This is an attack on the free press and an amateurish attempt at censorship that will not succeed. But it will help to show people that Ms Hassan Nahon is as hypocritical on press freedom as she is on everything. She would suppress free thinking and free writing. In fact, given it is also clear that Ms Hassan Nahon does not write many of her own speeches, perhaps Ms Hassan Nahon should tell Parliament who the Spanish authors of her speeches are every time she makes a speech, many of which echo Spanish policy on Gibraltar’s financial services. It is time to call out Ms Hassan Nahon for what she is, a rich politician pretending to be a champion of the working class; but the silver spoon which she was born with is visible through everything she says.’