Talk:Mark Camilleri

Important

It is important to highlight that the author of the Maltese Herald, Mr. Mark Camilleri, has a documented record of convictions for defamation and related violations, which significantly undermines his credibility as a source. This fact has also been confirmed by a third party independent legal opinion, with official court judgment extracts attached for your review (see attached: Declaration VM Legal o.b.o Maltese Herald and Mark Camilleri _26.09.2025.pdf). For your reference, these facts have also been covered in the public domain by established Maltese media outlets, including: · Times of Malta – -Date: 18 September 2025 · NevilleGafa Date: July 2025 · Newsbook – Date: 1 July 2025 · – MaltaToday – Date: 25 April 2025 · The Malta Independent– Date: 2 May 2022 · – MaltaDaily– Date: 28 October 2021

Collapsed due to WP:NOTFORUM and likely sockpuppetry

These examples demonstrate a consistent pattern of defamatory practices. Importantly, when publishing its article against Alkagesta, the Maltese Herald failed to seek our official comment , a basic journalistic principle. Only after our legal enforcement did the outlet publish our formal response. To date, no reputable media organization has relied on or referenced his publications. The allegations have only been echoed by non-credible, click-bait websites, none of which have any journalistic standing or industry relevance. ~2026-34045-22 (talk) 15:07, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

I think you are right to raise this point.

When assessing the reliability of a source, it is reasonable to take into account the background and track record of its author. In this case, there are documented court cases, legal findings, and independent legal opinions concerning Mark Camilleri and The Maltese Herald. These issues raise legitimate questions about whether their publications should be treated as reliable sources without independent verification.

It is also concerning that The Maltese Herald published allegations about Alkagesta without first seeking the company's comment. Giving the subject of an article an opportunity to respond is a basic journalistic standard. The fact that our position was only published after legal action was initiated further adds to these concerns.

Another important point is that the allegations have not been picked up or verified by reputable international media outlets. Instead, they appear to have been repeated mainly by low-credibility websites with little journalistic standing. This makes it difficult to treat the claims as established facts.

For these reasons, I believe it is reasonable to approach both the article and its author with caution and to rely primarily on independent, reputable sources when evaluating the allegations. ~2026-34145-99 (talk) 18:29, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

I agree that source reliability is an important consideration here.

There is publicly available information, including court records and legal commentary, which raises legitimate questions about the reliability of certain publications associated with Mark Camilleri and The Maltese Herald. In particular, references have been made to court findings involving defamatory publications, which is relevant when evaluating the credibility and weight of claims made by the same author.

Supporting documentation:

Legal declaration and supporting materials

For that reason, I think any allegations published by such sources should be treated with caution and should ideally be supported by strong independent sources before being relied upon. Source reliability and due weight are both relevant considerations in this discussion. Sunmoon333 (talk) 18:47, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

Just to clarify, the legal declaration linked above specifically concerns publications about Alkagesta and addresses the allegations made by The Maltese Herald. The document outlines the position of Alkagesta's legal representatives, including concerns regarding source verification, the absence of a request for comment prior to publication, and references to publicly available court proceedings involving the author.

While readers may draw their own conclusions, I believe the document is relevant to this discussion because it provides additional context regarding the reliability of the claims and the publication practices that have been questioned above. Sunmoon333 (talk) 18:54, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

@Sunmoon333 @~2026-34145-99 @~2026-34045-22 See Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines: this is not a forum for general discussion of the subject of this article. If you want to suggest a specific edit to this article, please follow the instructions at Wikipedia:Edit requests and make a specific request here with a citation to a reliable source.

Please also see Wikipedia:Sockpuppetry: "To maintain accountability and increase community trust, editors are generally expected to use only one registered account." Dreamyshade (talk) 19:13, 9 June 2026 (UTC)

Secondary source needed

I removed the statement at "The Maltese Herald is registered as a press outlet with the Department of Information with Mark Camilleri being listed as the sole owner and editor." because it didn't have a source. Are there any secondary sources that can be cited for this? This article should generally avoid citing self-published and primary sources - see WP:BLPRS. Dreamyshade (talk) 02:33, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

https://www.gov.mt/mt/Government/DOI/Media%20in%20Malta/Pages/List%20of%20Media%20in%20Malta/Electronic-News.aspx ~2026-42534-19 (talk) 02:51, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, that's helpful! Switched to English: https://www.gov.mt/en/Government/DOI/Media%20in%20Malta/Pages/List%20of%20Media%20in%20Malta/Electronic-News.aspx. That page doesn't list Camilleri, but it does seem to verify that the Maltese Herald is registered with the Department of Information as a news website. Dreamyshade (talk) 03:11, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

Also, anyone with a conflict of interest, including the subject of the article, people affiliated with him, or people with any kind of vested interest (positive or negative), should stick to commenting on this talk page instead of editing the article directly: Wikipedia:Plain and simple conflict of interest guide. Dreamyshade (talk) 06:11, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

I observe, that from the editing pattern - it appears that user~2026-42534-19 responds very defensively to any edits and treats content disputes as personal. This raises concern about the potential conflict of interest, so i would suggest this user to use talk page for proposed edits. @Dreamyshade Andrew Farrugia (talk) 11:09, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

In general on Wikipedia, and especially in WP:Biographies of living persons, statements in the article need to be based on information in independent secondary sources. The following news articles describe the subject as an author, publisher, blogger, journalist, or historian, and they describe his original website as a blog, so these are reasonable words to use in the article (WP:WEIGHT):

• January 2019, Malta Today: "historian and chairman of the National Book Council, Mark Camilleri"
• July 2022, Times of Malta: "published transcripts of chats between Fenech and Zammit Lewis in a blog post"
• March 2023, Newsbook Malta: "author and journalist Mark Camilleri."
• March 2023, Times of Malta: "Writing in his blog, Camilleri says" "Camilleri’s blog post on Thursday"
• Newsbook Malta, August 2023: "Author and blogger Mark Camilleri"
• Newsbook Malta, October 2023: "author and blogger Mark Camilleri"
• November 2023, Al Majalla: "author-historian Mark Camilleri, in a recent blog post"
• Times of Malta, January 2024: "author and blogger Mark Camilleri" "Camilleri published transcripts of conversations between Fenech and MP Rosianne Cutajar on his blog"
• Times of Malta, January 2024: "Camilleri, an author and blogger" "Camilleri released the chat transcripts on his blog"
• Newsbook Malta, February 2024: "author and blogger Mark Camilleri"
• Newsbook Malta, February 2024: "author and journalist Mark Camilleri" "Writing on his website"
• Times of Malta, September 2024: "blogger and author Mark Camilleri"
• Newsbook Malta, November 2024: "Journalist Mark Camilleri" "Author and media owner Mark Camilleri"
• Malta Today, April 2025: "Author Mark Camilleri" "a blog post published by Camilleri in May 2023"
• April 2025, Newsbook Malta: "Author and publisher Mark Camilleri" "in a 2023 blog post" "an article published by Camilleri on his personal blog"

Dreamyshade (talk) 07:33, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

There are certain edits - which has been undone by the editor: @~2026-42534-19.

Thus i would like to open the conversation on each:

1. Mark Camilleri has been fined for the contempt of court and defamation related to material he published. This is factual and supported by several Media outlets: https://newsbook.com.mt/en/mark-camilleri-found-guilty-of-libelling-simon-mercieca-in-mafia-claims/ https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/court_and_police/137106/mark_camilleri_handed_1000_fine_after_publishing_yorgen_fenech_whatsapp_chats_ https://timesofmalta.com/article/mark-camilleri-fined-1000-for-publishing-yorgen-fenech-chats.1116418 https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/court_and_police/134678/mark_camilleri_found_guilty_of_defamation_against_simon_mercieca I would kindly ask @Dreamyshade to stop - undo actions of the editor 2026-42534-19, as he does not communicate but just reverts back all the work done by the editors - he clearly violates the rule of Wikipedia, which i learned from you that you cannot revert back things more than 3 times within 24 hours, he did more than that. I dont understand - then what is the meaning of editing, if constantly this editor insults me using the Labeling words and reverting back the work of people.

Andrew Farrugia (talk) 11:02, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

Ir‑Realtà was a University of Malta student newspaper. As per my research it is not Mark Camilleri's personal student newspaper- the representation by the ~2026-42534-19 is misleading. Andrew Farrugia (talk) 12:58, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

The editor @~2026-42534-19 provided an argument against including that statement in the lead ("Mentioned in different parts of the article. This is a regular phenomenon to journalists and publishers and placing it in the introductory part is reductive."), so you need to write here and engage with that argument if you want to put it back in the lead.

Regarding your edit to the lead here, generally a good lead does not have citations (because it repeats information from elsewhere in the article that is already cited) - see WP:LEAD. Also, one of those citations is to an opinion piece, and this edit also cited an opinion piece - I do not recommend citing any opinion pieces in this article. As I've advised you before, please read WP:BLPRS - for biographies of living people, especially any controversial material, stick to citing proper news articles.

Regarding this edit, this revert, and your other edits that removed statements about the award being related to anti-censorship work, the citations support that Camilleri's advocacy contributed to reform of censorship laws, and that this was part of the reason for the award. Dreamyshade (talk) 16:03, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

From what i read - each award has a specific contribution named in the article. No one challenges what triggered the event of award, as Mark Camilleri started the anti-censorship group, after he got fined - he got attention (frustrated/blackmailed/whatever - the government ). Government gave him the award for the art and literature. Andrew Farrugia (talk) 23:23, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

I also don't think it's particularly important to keep the "blogger" term in the lead. It's justified by the secondary sources that I listed above, but part of building WP:Consensus is finding compromises between the perspectives of different editors. See also MOS:LEADSENTENCE: "Do not overload the first sentence by describing everything notable about the subject." An appropriate, concise, neutral lead sentence could simply be "Mark Camilleri is a Maltese writer and publisher", leaving the specific types of writing and publishing to be described in the rest of the lead. Dreamyshade (talk) 16:11, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

I can agree to this consensus, @Dreamyshade. Right now the text shows - Mark Camilleri is a Maltese author, historian, publisher, and independent journalist.

As per our consensus, it can be changed to neutral lead sentence: Mark Camilleri is a Maltese writer and publisher.

so- author, historian, independent journalist - should be deleted. Andrew Farrugia (talk) 23:26, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

Good to note that two editors agreeing is not necessarily consensus. And at this point, since the article reasonably meets basic BLP requirements and is likely to be stable for a while, I’m done with my turn working on it and will move on to other projects. Dreamyshade (talk) 00:59, 2 August 2026 (UTC)

He founded a news website, The Maltese Herald, in 2024, where he publishes investigations and news.

I dont see any citing supporting the word "investigations". Sharing the defamatory information and being convicted and being again sued for that reason - does not justify that publishes news, rather than his personal commentaries and opinion thougths. Andrew Farrugia (talk) 23:51, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

This was raised at BLP/N. I've added extended confirmed protection (500 edits, 30 days) to stop the edit warring. Discuss changes here and extended-confirmed editors can implement them. Fences&Windows 20:32, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

While folks are wondering what to do, let me make some note of one particular addition that has been edited-warred over. "Mark Camilleri is accused for blackmail by the Malta Today" has been referenced to this piece on the Malta Today website. However, that is an opinion piece by Saviour Balzan, who is founder and co-owner of MaltaToday. As he puts his name on it, it's just that, an opinion piece, not an editorial; if there is an accusation of blackmail, the accusation comes from Balzan, not MaltaToday. (I will note that Balzan was at one time the editor of MaltaToday, but that role is now held by Kurt Sansone. Balzan is Managing Editor of the company that owns the paper, but that's different from being the editor of the paper.)

The piece also doesn't directly make the accusation of blackmail; it lists "blackmail" as one of the things our article subject is "driven by", which is different from an action he takes. (In fact, if you told me someone did something "driven by blackmail", I'd assume they were the blackmail victim rather than the perpetrator.)

Finally, it is hard to show that this inclusion is due, as MaltaToday is not a third-party source for the matter, given Balzan's co-ownership. We would want to see third-party coverage of this opinion piece to indicate that inclusion was due. (And please remember, WP:NEWSOPED limits and discourages opinion pieces being used as sources, and presumably blackmail is a crime in Malta, which would make this a WP:BLPCRIME matter.) -- Nat Gertler (talk) 21:27, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

In Malta, thanks to the censorship rulings, Defamation became a civil case, not a criminal case as before. The person is convicted of the defamation case - found guilty and paid penalties. Now he has a new case - again for the defamation. Any defamation- has an incentive, blackmailing - winning contracts from the ministries (like 25,000 EURO contract) or request of 100,000 EURO from Malta Today free interest loan, request of donations from the Ministry directly - you can found these pieces of independent articles all over the internet portal.

Being Maltese, i know Mark Camilleri's reputation and deeds in Malta very well, wanted to do a few edits and then proceed to another articles- but see that he has a protector user here @~2026-42534-19, which writes in Wikipedia not a neutral text, but would like to present him a hero- which he is not, only considering all his court cases and judgements- facts. Andrew Farrugia (talk) 23:35, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

https://whoswho.mt/en/strong-condemnation-of-malicious-and-defamatory-reporting-by-mark-camilleri-and-the-maltese-herald

It is another example where the Reputable media outlet - is being harassed by Mark Camilleri to push forward his defamatory news. Andrew Farrugia (talk) 23:57, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

This is a press release from a company, published on their own website, so it is not suitable to cite in this article. Dreamyshade (talk) 00:51, 2 August 2026 (UTC)

Another point worth to mention, that in this page almost 20% of references given to Malta Today - but when it comes to the serious opinion wrote by them - why it should be ignored? this does not reflect neutrality. I strongly disagree. Andrew Farrugia (talk) 00:06, 2 August 2026 (UTC)

Read the reliable sources guidelines (Wikipedia:Reliable sources), including WP:NEWSOPED, that Nat linked above. Dreamyshade (talk) 00:46, 2 August 2026 (UTC)

Vandalism by pro-Labour government sources

The page has been vandalised by a pro-government actor and some details have been removed.

Mark Camilleri was born in 1988.

The fact that he founded Ir-Realta' has been removed. Clearly he was considered as the owner given that he was prosecuted for the publication.

~2026-42534-19 (talk) 21:38, 1 August 2026 (UTC)

Note that casting aspersions is more likely to get you blocked than to help you. I removed both of those details because they were not supported by reliable citations (see Wikipedia:Verifiability). I found a citation for your birth year, so I put that back in. Do you have a citation to a secondary source that describes you as founder of Ir-Realtà? The article would need to literally say "founder" or something very similar; we can't make assumptions. Dreamyshade (talk) 21:56, 1 August 2026 (UTC)