Thursday, 29th May 2008
A passion for the truth
When the Solidarity movement was mobilising the people on the streets of Gdansk and other cities of Poland the whole world waited to see what would happen. Greater anxiety was shown by the powers that were in Eastern Europe. The deputy head of the Hungarian TV news recounted to me the dilemma they were facing in his newsroom. He was speaking to me during one of the sessions of the Salzburg Seminar, Austria, I had attended several years ago.
Should they report these protests or should they ignore them? They decided to report them not out of the passion for the truth that should fill the heart of all journalists but out of a Machiavellian sense of strategy.
“Had we not reported,” the deputy head told me, “the people would have turned to BBC and Voice of America. That would have been worse for the party.”
The Communists did not have the purity of the Evangelical dove but at least they had the craftiness of the snake. Here in Malta is seems that party media neither have one nor the other.
A disappearing act
Take the run-up to the election of the leader of the Labour Party as an example. If one wants to know what is happening then one has to turn to the Nationalist media and to the independent media. Example: The head of the Socialist parliamentary group was in Malta and he addressed a press conference together with Dr Joe Muscat during which he endorsed Muscat. On One TV in the evening we had a report of the press conference, film and all. But Herr Martin Shultz was nowhere to be seen! Incredible but true! The One journalists distanced themselves from the story saying that the reportage – if one could call it that – was done the way it was done thanks to the diktat of the Labour Electoral Conference.
Is this 2008 Malta or the Stalinist Soviet Union? Do the gentlemen on the commission think that Labour supporters are nincompoops? Do they have to be protected from the evil face and nefarious words of Shultz? The debate about whether if was right of not to have Shultz endorse Muscat should have featured prominently on the Labour media and not banished from it.
Inside (pages) or just outside
Such shenanigans are not the prerogative of the Labour media. The media of the Partit Nazzjonalista should shoulder their fair share of blunders in the area. A certain Mr Azzopardi died in hospital after he was taken there by the police because of injuries he suffered, the cause of which is the subject of two different inquiries. The Malta Today had broken the story. There were several follow ups. On one particular day all of Malta’s newspapers except In-Nazzjon had the story on the front page with extensive coverage continuing on the inside pages. In-Nazzjon has a tiny bit of a story on one of the inside pages.
More. During the 31 March celebrations a group of left wingers did a kind of noisy public protest. Net TV did not even have one single word about the protest though it had extensive coverage about the celebrations.
The Maltese political media should at least have a modicum of respect for their audiences if they do not have the desirable level of respect for the truthful reportage of events. It is not possible to censor stories today. The pluralistic media environment we live in together with the Internet, emails, SMSs etc have made mince meat out of censorship. Tackle the hard stories instead of hiding them dear colleagues in the political media and media bosses.
The Pope’s Passion
I recently spent two days in Rome participating in a seminar about theology and communications organised by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. The participants were invited to a private audience with the Pope at the Sala Clementina inside the Pontifical Palace. I was immensely impressed by the Pope’s chapel whose three walls and ceiling had been decorated by mosaics on the occasion of the Millennium. You feel surrounded by the sheer beauty of this fantastic work of art. Those mosaics are a visual theological treatise.
From there we moved on to the audience with the Pope where he spoke of the passion for truth that should characterise the media.
Pope Benedict, among other things, said:
"It is self-evident that at the heart of any serious reflection on the nature and purpose of human communications there must be an engagement with questions of truth. ... The art of communication is by its nature linked to an ethical value, to the virtues that are the foundation of morality. In the light of that definition, I encourage you, as educators, to nourish and reward that passion for truth and goodness that is always strong in the young".
Let the citizen beware
As you can see the Pope’s speech is the source of my title. I lambasted the local political media. But I think that economy with the truth is not just their monopoly or prerogative. Look at the number of corrections in our media and one could see either the shoddiness or the irresponsibility that several so-called journalists show. This is also true on the international level. Whole books have been published recounting stories printed in newspapers and other news outlets whose relationship to the truth is as close as Hitler’s love for the Jews.
The extreme commercialisation of the media and their politicisation are both enemies of the truth. Readers, listeners and viewers should confront the media by an attitude of mistrust.
Concluding I borrow the subtitle of a book my McManus: Let the citizen beware.
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Comments
Broadcasting regulation in this country says it all.
The board of the regulator consists of representatives of the two main political parties, contravening Rec(2000)23, of the Council of Europe: ‘…specific rules … in order to avoid that regulatory authorities are under the influence of political power.’
As for our psb being government owned, check out UNESCO’s definition of psb’s at: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1525&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html ‘It is neither commercial nor state-owned, free from political interference…’
What about Council of Europe Recommendation No R(96) 10 on psb’s?
Political party tv ownership? Fr Joe’s example is a perfect illustration of the situation. In 1998 it was described by Dr Fenech Adami as a ‘transitional phenomenon’. (The Times 2.12.98 p7). Ten years later, nothing has changed.
Let the citizen beware? We need broadcasting regulation in place to safeguard the interests of the citizen. Unless it is brought in line with Council of Europe recommendations, we can never hope to have an informed citizenry capable of participating in a truly democratic process.
I find the fifth one to be the best, especially for all those drivers sporting those super cool stickers "your eyes in my ...".
Maybe we can use it in the "How to Post on Fr Joe's Blog without Offending Us" guidelines: Blogs shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.
Unless someone objects....you'll never know.
Maybe the Pope will find some time in his busy schedule to pen Guidelines on How to Post on Fr Joe's Blog without Offending Us (the royal we) After the Vatican did issue a publication on how to a good driver...
http://www.sodahead.com/question/5807/
You made a case in your hysterical comment why the editor lets unethical comments pass him by. I read them all and I see no unethical behaviour from anyone. So the fact that Fr Joe addressed Claire Bonello in reply to her comment does this constitute 'tearing each other' or unethical writing? From what I can see, Victoria and Maria just addressed each other with very clever posts and so it does not fall under your unethical and tearing each other to pieces. The trouble with this country is that we do not appreciate humour and it is clearly reflected in your post. Let us enjoy ourselves without looking over our shoulder thinking you are coming at us with a big stick.
After all, this is also communication but of another type. Some humour never hurt anybody but some people seem to have had theirs surgically removed.
Ms Galea, who's picking one whom? Ms Grech makes very valid comments on various issues and at times, she even introduces some humor in her writing. Surely there's nothing wrong in doing so and in answering a "blog-acquaintance" in return. Surely the Pope would approve of this!
Used properly, I have no doubt that these blog sites constitute an extremely powerful media tool which can be educational and beneficial for all. After all Fr Joe did quote Pope Benedict XVI who stated that "the art of communication is by its nature linked to an ethical value".
What's so ethical about the way some people tear other people to pieces through this medium???????
Scene 2. Maltese Law Courts, post election - 'Not true.' EFA pays damages to Afred Sant.
Did EFA acquire "unmerited credibilty without being truthful at the same time .... in a society whose tertiary educational facilities (had) been deliberately downgraded to near extinction."??
Xarabank's production team listened to the criticism of several people and made changes from year to year. I wrote about Xarabank several times since that time. Those who followed my articles could notice that i reacted positively to the positive changes that Xarabank was doing as time progressed. Those who followed my articles were not surprised by what i wrote now. Those who were frozen in a time warp were.
It seems that hiring a crowd backfires on who organises it,and certain 'jerry springer' subjects are being avoided by Peppi.
We can easily state that Xarabank changed to the continuously changing requirements of the viewing public.
Could this be why Fr Joe described Xarabank in two different ways?
Or let’s just call it diversity!
It's called diversity.
People have a right to change their mind. Maybe Fr Joe had a post-modern epiphany...
Also, I think that (on certain subjects) programs like Xarabank, which are eclectic by their very own nature, have instilled the "heqq mhux opinjoni ux!" syndrome in the Maltese mentality at the expense of communicating what is true or false, right or wrong. I don't mean any disrespect to my neighbour, Mr Azzopradi, whom I respect very much. I am simply giving my opinion on this particular genre of programs.
Becky has been around for a very long time. It is an example of popular drama which addresses in a very sensible way many social issues and arguments. It made a valid contribution to the genre in Malta. Perhaps it now needs a rest so that the producers will find the time and energy to rebrand it.
The media can easily be 'corrupted' by an entity/ person just by 'purchasing' advertising space .
It was hard for Super One not to accept the adverts/financing from MIC before the EU referendum, so the station created a 'counter advertisement ' campaign which was in line with the MLP's policy.
RTK has to bow down to Maltco and let the latter advertise on the radio even during Monsignor Victor Grech's talk show .
It was amusing how , for example during the Save Ramla l-Hamra campaign , we never saw what was really happening on the real sandy beach , and the surrounding area , namely wooden shacks and fields turned into parking areas.Same applies to the so called JPO scandal, where we never were shown that right next door to the land in question there is a full blown development , and the sea at Mistra stinks and is lifeless due to fish farming.
It seems that it is always hard for the citizen to know what is really happening.
With the Joseph Muscat story One TV went wrong because it was reporting an event which is very much part and parcel of their own party's leader election process. To censor their own story is preposterous. But that's One TV.
The reason given was that the electoral commission ordered them to leave Mr. Schultz out of the picture!
The very nature of politics in today's world is to portray a political event in the best possible light and that is understandable, but in so doing, the truth must not be masked, distorted and half told as what happened in the Schultz and other stories in both sets of the local political media.
Consumer awareness is much more alive and kicking today when compared to fifteen or so years ago. But this consumer awareness does not include awareness about our rights on one of our most important areas of consumption.
After all the people do not only get the government they deserve. They also get the media they deserve!