Dear readers and all 

Thank you for visiting this page. 

My name is Mr Martin Else. I am the founder and owner of this free of charge newspaper Malta Now – distributed via our red newspaper dispensers on the streets of both Malta and Gozo. 

I’m happy to have been publishing this newspaper for many years. It started off as a home based business and has now grown to the point where it has a readership in Malta and Gozo of over 160,000 in print alone. Maltese and tourist readers alike enjoy reading our paper every month.

The future of the Malta Now and the Freedom of the Press in Malta is in great danger.

I received a WhatsApp communication from Mr Conrad Borg Manche – the Mayor of Gzira on Thursday night 22/09/2016 dictating to me to remove my newspaper dispensers from the streets of Gzira within a period of one week. If I did not comply, he would arrange through the Commissioner of Police for their removal. 

The reason I received this message is simply due to a personal vendetta that Mr Conrad Borg Manche has against me personally.

Several years ago, I hired Mr Borg Manche as my accountant. He later offered to invest in the region of €25,000 in a seemingly promising business venture between us. Unfortunately, this business legitimately failed and we both lost our money. My father and I lost in excess of €100,000. As working class people, such a loss caused my father and I great difficulties for many years, despite this, I tried to peacefully move on with my life, however, in my opinion, Mr Borg Manche didn’t take the same approach. 

During the past 6 years, he has endlessly pursued me ever since. I’ve had to endure court cases, garnishee orders and countless other problems at the hands of this man – these problems are clearly still ongoing today.

Due to Mr Borg Manche’s political ambitions, connections and so on, this problem has the potential to cause me and this newspaper publication a great deal of trouble…

On Thursday 22/9/2016 one of our newspaper dispenser in Gzira was illegally stolen by the Gzira local council without my permission and taken into their custody. Upon trying to get my dispenser back in its permitted area, I receive the above messages. The Gzira Local Council also caused severe damage to the newspaper dispenser in question. 

I have written a letter to practically every politician, government entity and anyone who could be of assistance to help us through this period of turbulence. I have even written a letter to fellow members of the media. As such actions against the media affect us all. A free and open media are the cornerstone of any civil society and a corner stone of democracy.

The Freedom of the Press is protected under the Maltese Constitution.

We do our part to provide jobs and activity within the local economy to help Malta prosper. Just like every business does. And we operate as ethically as possible. Yet it appears that Mr Borg Manche is taking a rather anti-business approach to this issue.

It is clear that the vendetta has been taken against me personally for various reasons. It appears that I am the only person that has been targeted for such an action. I haven’t witnessed any other company on the strand suffer the same problems. Various companies are present on the Strand in Gzira that provide advertising on chairs, pedestrian guards and so on.

Malta Post – a private business just like mine, also have post boxes located in Gzira on the pavements. Is Mr Borg Manche going to insist on their removal too? Telephone and electricity companies also have things on the streets. Are these going to be removed too?

How does a post office box have any more rights than a newspaper box dispensing free of charge newspapers to remain in place? - this is my whole point. And how can one mayors abuse of power work.

This is where you could help us.

Write to us at Malta Now with your complaint aimed towards the Gzira local council and write to the local council and any other Government official who may be able to assist us. Help us keep our newspaper dispensers (that we have the proper permits for) on the streets. AND PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION.

Your support will help and we would greatly appreciate it. 

I wish I could tell you the full story of everything that is happening and what has happened. But releasing such information publicly would probably get me into trouble.

Best wishes

Martin Else and the team at Malta Now