One stands for press freedom as a cornerstone of democracy, and the other stands for a government regulated press. That is the schism that appeared between the press freedom recognised by President Myriam Spiteri Debono in her inaugural speech, and the once again warning shot fired by Prime Minister Robert Abela in his reaction soon after.
The president wants to give journalism a breath of fresh air, Abela wants to stifle it.
Her inaugural speech recognises the media as the fourth pillar of democracy, as being the voice of the people with its responsibility of scrutinising the government and the opposition.
It would have been perfect had she also referred to the media’s role in scrutinising big business and other large organisations. But her description of the media as “the voice of the people” is spot on.
She upped the ante in her interview with The Sunday Times of Malta (April 7).
“Investigative journalism is a strong foundation for democracy and good governance. Investigative journalism must be protected in the constitution, but the media must also have rules on how to operate.”
Spiteri Debono’s commitment to press freedom through self-regulation is decades long. In fact, she was one of the three members of the first Press Ethics Commission set up by the Malta Press Club.
In our book Reforming Malta’s Media System we made the case for holistic and radical reform. Entrenching the media as the fourth pillar of democracy and establishing the rules on how the media operate were two of our proposals.
We argued that in a democratic country a strong regime of self-regulation is the way forward for quality journalism. Self-regulation is a type of voluntary initiative which enables media operators “to adopt common guidelines among themselves and for themselves. They are responsible for developing, monitoring, and enforcing compliance with those guidelines”, (Amadeo Arena).
The president wants to give journalism a breath of fresh air, Robert Abela wants to stifle it
On Monday, Abela took a different route. He brags on about the raft of pro-press freedom legislation that he says, the government wants to enact.
But without giving any proof he blames the opposition and others that these laws are not in force. But has the government ever stopped from enacting legislation because the opposition was against it? Surely neither the opposition nor those others, are stopping him from publishing that White Paper he promised about six months ago?
Making matters worse, Abela said that for media freedom to be entrenched as the fourth pillar of democracy – something which his minister of justice has promised – he will claim a hefty price.
When he said that the media must be regulated in a similar way to the other three pillars, he basically said if you want to entrench media freedom then it will be under my rules. But this is about entrenching a freedom and not entrenching some organ of state.
Subjecting a freedom to a state authority is a restrictive measure of control not an enabler. Perhaps Abela forgets that even the European Council, in whose meetings he generally represents us, considers that the “descent into authoritarian rule often starts with independent media being targeted”.
This threat of stifling journalism has been mooted before. During the 2013 electoral campaign, Labour leader Joseph Muscat during a press conference in Lija asked whether the Broadcasting Authority should just stick to broadcasting or also regulate the press.
It was reported – and never denied – that even Abela himself, during discussions with journalists at his office in Castille mooted the idea of widening the scope of the Broadcasting Authority to cover the press.
Abela’s comments are bad news for press freedom. His comments are bad news for people’s right to know.
The president’s call expresses an understanding of media freedom and journalism which meets the requirements of a democracy. A government’s move to regulate the media is bad news for democracy, and consequently for the voice of the people.