Born in Paola, Bonello comes from a Police oriented family. He studied
at the Floriana Primary School and later at St. Augustine's College in
Pieta'. Afterwards, he successfully completed and attained a Teachers'
Diploma in Typewriting (Joint Examinations Board, London, UK), Diploma
in Social Studies (MAS & University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome, Italy)
and Diploma in Clinical Counselling (Institute of Counselling, Glasgow,
Scotland).
He also attended an intensive course in Creative Writing run by the
University of Malta, as well as radio, television and film production
and technique courses organized by private companies, and Journalism
courses held by the Tumas Fenech Foundation for the Education of
Journalists in aspects of Gender Issues, Financial Journalism, Science
& Technology, and Newsroom Management respectively.
He started his career in Broadcasting and Journalism in 1992. His first
assignment was that with 'Mas Radio' as Producer and Presenter for
various 'live' talk shows. He was actually the first Journalist to
present talk show programmes on this radio station. Immediately after
he was employed by Independence Print as a journalist in the Newsroom.
Some two years after promoted to the Features Department where his
journalism stories became more independent oriented, and investigative.
During this post, Bonello served as Reporter on assignments in Cyprus
and Switzerland respectively. Within this post, he introduced in
Maltese Journalism, annual features series dealing with specific
subjects of general interest. Amongst these, series such as 'X Files',
'News Hit' and The Case (1998), with which he was nominated, Finalist in the
BPC Award to Journalists, 1997 edition. He was also the first Maltese
journalist to introduce an e-mail address as a means of correspondence
with the readers.
The year after he dealt mainly with hard investigative stories, as well
as the series 'Time Bomb' and '191', the later dealing with Police work
and services. Once again he was nominated as Finalist in the BPC Award
to Journalists. In 1997 he also produced and presented a 'live' radio
series for Radio Malta with PBS Ltd. A year after he was engaged within
the same company, this time as Executive Producer for the investigative
television series, 'The Case', dealing with unsolved crimes in Malta.
This television production was a hit in all aspects. Within six weeks,
it had a massive audience of 149,000 televiewers (from a population of
360,000 people in Malta). Three series of 13 programmes each were
produced and within, the Police had received no less than 1,000 reports
of information dealing with past unsolved cases, and also present ones.
In the same year that Bonello was Finalist in the BPC Award to
Journalists for the Print Medium category, he was also Finalist, and
eventually Winner of the BPC Award to Journalists, Television category.
Later, during the same year, he won the Malta Broadcasting Authority
Award for the Best Investigative Television Journalism Series. The year
after Bonello won for the second consecutive time, the BPC Award to
Journalists, Television category and since last year (2001) was
Finalist in the BPC Award to Journalists, Broadcasting Category after
producing a well researched radio series called 'Unique' on the Malta
University Radio.
His journalistic career continued to develop when in November 2000 he
began writing and reporting for the Sunday Maltese newspaper, 'The
Moment' and at the same time producing series 2 and series 3 of the
already mentioned radio production. He was also called on by 'The
Nation' daily newspaper Editor and the Head of 'Net Television' to
script-write, devise and produce two big commercials for 'The Nation'
and 'The Moment' newspapers respectively, to be screened on television.
By the turn of the new millennium, Bonello faced another journalistic
challenge when he wrote and published his first book with PIN
Publications, named after the investigative television series, 'The
Case'. This book, the first of two volumes, covers investigative
stories dealt with in the television series, as well as research and
statistics based on information gathered from the public throughout
each and every programme. Today this publication is being used by
Police recruits, 'Constables' and 'Officer Cadets' as a unique Guide to
Crime in Malta, within the Police Academy courses of studies.
In 2001 Bonello was assigned with VOM Radio International, a radio
station that transmits from Malta to well over 60 countries including
the United States, Canada and Australia. As Executive Producer he
produced two radio series in English, one called 'Internet' and the
other, 'Films in Malta', which was found to be very interesting,
especially amongst thousands of Maltese emigrants around the world.
Another interesting professional assignment for Tonio Bonello came
mid-last year (2001) when he was appointed Production Consultant for a
private-owned Maltese Television Company, Q-Productions Entertainment
Ltd, where he's still giving his services. Later, he was also chosen to
act as Public Relations and Media Manager for the Malta Song for Europe
2002 edition. During his entire career, Bonello worked for leading
media organisations in Malta, namely:- Radio Malta, MAS Radio,
University Radio, VOM Radio International, The Nation, The Moment, The
Police Magazine, PIN Publications, Television Malta, Net Television and
Q-Productions Television Ltd., respectively. He was interviewed several
times by various media about his extensive works and career, and he
personally interviewed hundreds of distinguished personalities from
practically every nation around the world. Currently, he just finished
writing a screenplay based in New York, USA, intended for the
international market, and intends to publish more books dealing with
social, human and investigative aspects, some of them already written.
His last success came recently when Tonio Bonello was selected as
Finalist, both in the Print Category and in the Broadcast Category for
the 12th Edition of the BPC Award to Journalists. This is the seventh
consecutive year for Bonello to be selected for these prestigious
awards. He also won two of these Awards, as well as one award from the
Malta Broadcasting Authority for the Best Investigative Television
Production. Tonio Bonello is active Member of The Malta Press Club, as
well as Member of the British Screenwriting Institute.
