GSLP Holding Back Inquiry Report to Leader of the Opposition Tells a Big Story

GSLP Holding Back Inquiry Report to Leader of the Opposition Tells a Big Story

By the time the McGrail Inquiry is published the main Gibraltar press will have had it for at least 12 days. TheGovernment itself will have had it for a minimum of 39 days. In both cases those periods will be even longer if the publication date goes beyond 15 December. On the Government’s own admission, the publication of the Report is being held back so the Chief Minister can be available to have a say in what it has described as “the foreseeable public debate” – presumably to defend the Government’s corner. GBC and the Chronicle has also been provided the Report to help in their own public presentations.

For the GSLP Government to now confirm it will not provide the embargoed Report to the Opposition Leader till 24 hours before publication is a transparent attempt at minimising notice when the Government itself is obviously preparing for the coming public debate they envisage.

Mr Azopardi said: “The Government’s insistence of minimizing notice to the Opposition speaks volumes about what is truly going on here in their desire to control the initial presentation of this Report. This is not about us weaponizing anything as they claim. How can it be when we have not even seen the Report? It is however about a desperate GSLP

Government who received the Report over a month ago and are fully aware of its conclusions seeking to maximise control of its delivery to the public. People will see through all this when the time comes. How does the Government’s obsessive desire to massage every aspect of the publication process contribute to clarity on the Report’s conclusions on the major issues of public interest that were raised in the Inquiry? Or is it really more about nervousness as to what the Report actually says?”