The Institute of Maltese Journalists: an extension of Super One
Tell us it isn't true, Charlon
Somebody has just emailed me this ‘stqarrija ghall-istampa’, with the message ‘I thought this press statement was a joke. Then I realised that it’s the Institute of Maltese Journalists which is the real joke.’
Stqarrija ghall-Istampa: xx/2010
Data: 3 ta’ Marzu 2010
L-IGM JIKKUNDANNA ATTAKK FUQ KRU TA’ ONE NEWS
L-Istitut tal-Ġurnalisti Maltin (IĠM), irċieva ilment u jinnota b’dispjaċir il-każ li seħħ ilbieraħ li matulu kru ta’ ONE News kien fil-mira ta’ attakk ta’ intimidazzjoni verbali u f’ħin minnhom fiżika.
L-IĠM jinnota li fis-sekwenza tal-filmati kif miġbuda, artikolista qalet kliem ta’ disprezz fil-konfront tal-ġurnalist ta’ ONE News Charlon Gouder u l-cameraman Byon Jo Zammit.
F’ħin minnhom l-istess artikolista tinstema’ tilmenta man-nies ta’ madwarha biex iwaqqfu lill-kru milli jiffilmja għax fi kliemha, din kienet ta’ intimidazzjoni fuqha.
F’dan il-ħin, persuna li kienet qed takkumpanjaha ħebbet tliet darbiet bil-handbag fuq il-camera ta’ ONE News.
“Dan l-aġir hu kundannabbli,” saħaq il-Kunsill tal-IĠM. “U anke jekk l-artikolista ħasset li ma kienx ġust li tiġi ffilmajta, bl-ebda mod ma jiġġustifika dan l-aġir vjolenti,” żied jgħid il-Kunsill tal-Istitut.
Tmiem
I am speaking to my lawyer about instituting libel proceedings against the Institute of Maltese Journalists and its key officials. It is now effectively little more than an Ghaqda Gurnalisti Laburisti. It is controlled by deputy chairman Julia Farrugia (formerly of Super One and now of Media Today), secretary-general Joe Vella (former editor of It-Torca and now retired), and deputy secretary-general Charlot Zahra (of Media Today).
Chairman Malcolm Naudi appears to be little more than a puppet on Julia Farrugia’s string. He is currently away from Malta, and when I rang him to ask what in God’s name he thought he was doing, issuing a statement describing my behaviour as violent – when even Malta Today quotes me as saying ‘Excuse me, please, but this is harassment’, he didn’t pick up the phone.
Another point: my sister is a private citizen. The Labour Party has no right to chase her through the street while filming her. In doing so, the Labour Party is breaking the law and she has every right to try to stop them and to block their lens with her hand-bag when they refuse to desist.
I rang the remaining committee member, Mario Schiavone, who told me that he hadn’t seen the statement and that nobody had checked with him before issuing it.
I told him that in that case, the honest and decent thing to do would be to disassociate himself publicly from it, and not just over the telephone to me.
I pointed out something that is obvious to all clear-thinking people: that in this issue I am the journalist who should have the support of the Institute of Maltese Journalists – not that I want it, need it, or care about it, though it’s an entirely different issue when they release libelous statements about me.
A Super One cameraman, on the other hand, is not a journalist but the agent and employee of a political party, there to harass a REAL JOURNALIST for purely political reasons: because the Labour Party hates me with a passion for being one of the reasons why it is repeatedly undone at the general election polls.
Democracy for Labour has always meant attempting to snuff out any opposition or criticism. Once more we are back to the days when the Labour Party persecuted journalists and others who it deems ‘enemies of the party’, using any machinery at its disposal to do the job.
Super One is now being used in place of Il-Qattus, Lorry Sant’s boys, and the men who shot Raymond Caruana. It is not entirely coincidental that the offspring of one of the men suspected of having shot Raymond Caruana is now prominent in the field of – ahem – ‘political journalism’.
The Institute of Maltese Journalists has no business aiding and abetting a political party in attacking, for partisan reasons that have nothing to do with journalism, a true journalist who is not employed by a political party and who does not work for one.
In Super One’s eyes, I am not a journalist but a politician, and that is how they treat me. Now the Ghaqda Gurnalisti Laburisti – aka the Institute of Maltese Journalists – has taken up the same approach. When faced with a situation where a journalist (me) is harassed by the paid agents of a political party (Super One), it releases a libelous statement condemning the journalist for ‘violently attacking’ the paid agents of the political party. Unbelievable.
On the principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, Malta Today has now thrown in its lot firmly with Super One on this issue (and others, but let’s concentrate on this). Today they ran a big headline about my ‘ill-bred attack on Super One’s people’, and undermined their own story by quoting me saying ‘Excuse me, please, but this is harassment’, and describing how my sister was constrained to ask for the help of a passing policewoman. Another sister then helpfully advised the cameraman to carry a spare T-shirt with him because every time he raised his arms he had large patches of sweat visible. And then when he wouldn’t go away, she blocked his lens with her handbag.
And that’s an ‘attakk fahxi fuq il-crew tas-Super One’, who apparently labour under the delusion that they have some sacrosanct right to harass people in the street for political reasons.
The Labour Party never changes. Now that it can no longer use thugs to harass those it considers to be its political enemies, it uses its media to bully them instead.
Instead of complaining about my legitimate question as to whether it is true that Charlon Gouder was robbed of his wallet by a prostitute and filed a dubious report with the police claiming that he had been robbed by a woman who stopped his car in Albert Town, Gouder should do the proper thing and answer that question instead.
Did it happen or did it not happen? Unlike Super One and Malta Today, which never publishes my right-of-reply letters, I abide by the law on these matters. If he wishes to send me a denial of or an explanation as to what happened that day, I will publish it in full, and will do so with pleasure.
And as for the Institute of Maltese Journalists, it can go to hell. Unless it issues a retraction immediately, we’re going to court.
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I’ve been busy these last three days but I’ve just seen the clip.
First of all it’s so good to see Helene making fun of those idiots. Secondly, I really would like to buy a handbag like Corinne’s. I’m sure it’s packed with James Bond gadgets like ejecting buckles, stiletto poison-tipped darts, sweat-homing missiles, and anti-prostitute harassment sprays, besides the fact that it’s a weapon of mass destruction as it contains a miniature nuclear bomb.
That was soooo ill bred of the Vella sisters to behave that way to those nice, hunky, sweaty cameramen and the intrepid cutting-edge, wannabe lawyer and dapper journalist like Charlatan Gouder. His reportage was truly Pulitzer (or I should say Policer) prize material, was it not?
The bag’s “armed” with a purse, a set of keys, and a notebook and pen. Oh, and a birthday gift for delivery to a friend. Nothing that raised the alarm when my bag was scanned, but just the sort of things to give Super One the jitters.
Aren’t these the same people who claimed to have been attacked when someone put their hand over their camera lens?
Enough said.
[Daphne – Yes, and they didn’t send in their Communications Coconut Kurt Farrugia this time.]
Thank your lucky stars I wasn’t there too, Mario. (I couldn’t be there due to unforeseen circumstances.)
Your absence was noted. Tergax! Demm komuni, and all that.
WAKE UP PEOPLE. THIS IS BUT A TASTE OF WHAT’S LOOMING OVER THE HORIZON.
WAKE UP PEOPLE. THIS IS BUT A TASTE OF WHAT’S LOOMING OVER THE HORIZON.
You are not the only one to whom Mr Balzan denies right of reply. He is the paragon of ethical behaviour this Mr Balzan.
Piu’ fuori che dentro, says the sign on the entrance door of a particular Turinese institution.
How extremely pathetic all these One journalists are! Can someone please explain to me what their problem is? Seems like these guys never got over the fact that Nationalists are in government. Well, it’s about bloody time they did and leave everyone in peace and quiet!
Good job, Daphne – keep it up. We want more people like you.
Is this what they understand with “agir vjolenti’? Agir vjolenti li kellna fis-70s u l-80s, mela dan.
General amnesia….how convenient.
But again, they’re a bunch of kids who never bothered to do some independent historical research and base their island-view fuq li tghidilhom il-mummy, u l-poodle ukoll.
I can’t help but laugh at the reaction by OneNews, the IGM et al. Anyone who sees the clip must be blind not to see a molehill being portrayed as the Himalayan mountain chain.
Il-vera babies iddisprati.
This press release by the IGM and the silence of the press on the magistrate issue are astonishingly surreal. It looks like the Maltese press do not have any pride in their own ‘profession’.
In Malta there are three types of journalists: those who are solely loyal to their political masters; those who want to maintain their personal status quo and remain in the inner circles, in order to be considered with the in-crowd, and receive a leak once in a while; and those who are keen to serve their personal ego or personality, go onto Xarabank, chat shows etc.
Is there any regard for the public (viewers, readers)? It is not a priority at all. If a journalist does not throw soft balls at the politician, he/she is immediately accused of being biased (the way Marie Benoit ripped Reno Bugeja apart for not treating her cute Muscat with kid gloves).
@P.Shaw. Thank the good lord you mentioned Marie Benoit. It’s a bit of humorous relief in this whole drama.
Can’t say the same for whoever mentioned Matrenza.
A little more humorous relief. Super One should employ some tall cameramen or give them platform shoes. Pity for sweaty armpits Byon Jo Zammit that he wasn’t filming fellow midget Marie Benoit. At least a head shot would have been a head shot and not a nostril shot taken from a ‘let’s film upwards’ angle.
“Intimidazzjoni verbali u f’ħin minnhom fiżika.”
Qisu kien xi Ultimate Smackdown. U P.S., meta jghaddi Mintoff fit-triq ghaliex hadd ma jghajjat “Affaffin tal-Maltin”?
I can’t but agree with you, Maria. If this is attakk fahxi then the 70s and 80s were hell on earth – and they really were close to it.
ATTENTI HBIEB..XI HADD SERAQ IR-RITRATT TA SILVIO MINN FUQ FACEBOOK TIEGHU U FETAH FACEBOOK IEHOR BL-ISEM SILVIO-SCERRI NEXOS…QED JAGHMEL HAFNA HSARA, PLEASE REPORT AND BLOCK HIM. SILVIO M’GHADX GHANDU AKTAR FACEBOOK U MHUX SER IKUN PREZENTI AKTAR FUQ FACEBOOK. GHINU LIL SILVIO BIEX JITHASSAR L-ACCOUNT LI MA HOLOQX HU..GRAZZI
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/jason.busuttil1?ref=nf
the dangers of facebook
You can report the impersonation to Facebook. Fake IDs are against its policy and are removed immediately.
Daqqa ta’ handbag….agir vjolenti?
[Daphne – It wasn’t a ‘daqqa’. She didn’t hit the man with her handbag. She blocked his lens with it, so that he could not continue to film her. She is a private citizen, covered by the Data Protection Act.]
Dawn jafu x’qed jghidu jew le? Nixtieq inkun naf kif jiddefinixxu il-vjolenza u l-hnizrijiet li twettqu matul is-snin sebghin u tmenin minn dawn in-nies li issa qed jibzghu min mara armata bil-handbag.
Jidher car li ma kienetx daqqa, lanqas darba ahseb w ara tlett darbiet. Li kieku kif il-handbag baqghet tidher fl-istampa?
U cwiec bizzejjeb biex hallew il-provi fil-filmat taghhom stess li ghadu jidher fuq Maltastar.
It’s incredible really. Surreal even. I notice the statement hasn’t made timesofmalta.com yet. I’d hope to now hear a host of ‘decent’ journalists, regardless of their political stand-point, coming out to disassociate themselves from this statement, if not deplore it outright. It was written and issued on their behalf, after all.
@ chris portelli
Good job, Daphne – keep it up. We want more. The nationalist party is not being fair with her or anyone else for that matter. They should not hold back. They need to show past violent Labour behaviour, so that the know it all upcoming generation will TRULY know it ALL.
We also need to remind the not-so-young of those golden words uttered by a man of peace in very hot circumstances “ma jinbidlux”. The PN is duty- and politically-bound to do this. We lived it, so we know it. Others have the RIGHT to know it too.
Daphne is doing it at personal risk and she should be supported and protected. Stand up and be counted.
” The nationalist party is not being fair with her or anyone else for that matter. They should not hold back.”
What? As if they would dare utter a word. Musumeci is one of them, and they will stay silent on this whole sordid affair.
The Labour Party, on the other hand, seems to be doing a great job of promoting Daphne’s website, for people to come and learn/see for themselves, all the gory details of Scerri Herrera etc.
What marvels me is that they continue to shout and scream even after seeing all the evidence of crieki ta’ go crieki ta’ go crieki that involves their followers for the main part.
They are either plain dumb, prefer a good holler no matter what the consequences, or must really think that Scerri Herrera’s etc behaviour is tal-life.
It’s all three, actually.
Journalists in tights.
Are we talking about One media? No brains, no balls, no decency. With leaders like Jason and Joseph, would one expect any better?
I read your blog with a degree of sadness. First of all, because I sympathise with you; it can’t be easy to deal with all this. Secondly, I admire that you hold your head up high in the midst of it all.
But I ask, is it worth it? I hope that it will serve to wake up some stray conscience. It is beginning to sound like the 70s and the 80s. I believe that even back then you were accused of having assaulted a policeman, right?
[Daphne – That’s right. The policeman in question was 710, one of the most notorious agents of that regime. He assaulted me, picking me up off the ground my my neck and punching me in the chest. Then the next thing I know, two plain-clothes police are picking me up at my place of work, without an explanation, and ‘disappearing’ me for 27 hours in a dark cell without contacting my parents to let them know. Then I’m allowed out and Anglu Farrugia tells me that I will only be allowed to leave if I sign the ‘confession’ he has written.]
Where I disagree with you is that I’m not sure this has anything to do with politics. I think it has to do with klikkek, with friends of friends and with deep-rooted and well-concealed interests.
[Daphne – They’re not that well concealed, Gen. All you have to do is some Googling to find out who Stephen Tonna Lowell has been working with on criminal cases recently. Yes, it has to do with wheels within wheels, but those wheels don’t, strictly speaking, cross the political parties. They just embrace three members of two prominent old-time PN families who have far more contacts and links with the Labour Party than they do with the Nationalist Party of today. They have their mentality in common with Labour, too. They work to undermine and to further their own personal interests. Who needs Freemasonry?]
I think that you broke the usual pattern, you spoke out loud what others are scared to even whisper. In itself, Daphne, that is very threatening and dangerous for those involved.
The Musumeci – Consuelo affair is clear evidence that these connections go way way beyond politics. You’re the one with the cupboard key, and those cupboards contain blue and red skeletons alike – so they both have an interest to keep you out using all means available.
Malta is a small community – what happens on the island stays on the island, and stays with you the rest of your life – there’s no escape, so the only safety net is omertà, that same omertà so brilliantly described in Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s Gattopardo, recently quoted by you.
You break the pattern, you face the music, played by an orchestra of dishonest, incompetent idiots.
Yes, Lampedusa’s insights are often applicable to Maltese culture. Again, we could look at the film The People versus Larry Flynn. Larry took the First Amendment at face value. What do we want from journalists here in Malta?
Can anyone tell me. Has the IGM issued a statement condeming Bencini’s outburst last Sunday against Stephen Calleja of the Independent? I must have missed it!
They didn’t and they won’t. They probably think he deserved it because he’s not on ‘their’ side.
ISSA ISBAH, TPOGGI HANDBAG QUDDIEM IL-CAMERA HU ATT VJOLENTI? MELA VERU CHARLON GOUDER KIEN GHADU BIL-HARQA META KIENU JISSAWTU IL-GURNALISTI FIS-70s U L-80s.
Mela li ittemma il-microphone li Prim Ministru qabel l’elezzjoni dak x’inhu Sur Gouder? U reporters u camera persons jaqla bis-sieq waqt xi attivita tal-Labour dak x’inhu?
QISKHOM QED TGHIXU FIS 70s U 80s KEMM HAD DUMU ISSEMMUHOM, DAK IZ ZMIEN GHADDA DEARS, INSEJTUHOM ZMIENKOM? VIVA IL LABOUR, WE SHOULD GET RID OF THE NATIONALISTS ONCE AND FOR ALL, HA! HA!
Who told you Charlon has been weaned off diapers?
Is Richard Matrenza still on the board? Or was that something else?
[Daphne – That was the Press Club. These press organisations always end up being taken over by Laburisti, qishom xi forcini tal-free speech.]
Please don’t mention that name. It brings me out in jitters.
Believe me, I know what you mean but my reaction cannot be mentioned …
Vindictiveness and spitefulness are the most consistent thing about the Labour party.
SHUT UP PLEASE GINGER,LABOUR FOR EVER
http://trololololololololololo.com/
Old Labour, I see. So much for “Moviment Gdid”.
Agreed in the hope something decent is born. But by the looks of things it seems very unlikley!!
‘Democracy for Labour has always meant attempting to snuff out any opposition or criticism.’
Last Sunday Marie Benoit was angry at Reno Bugeja of Dissett because, according to her, he tried to embarrass Joseph Muscat. Ahseb u ara kemm ihobbu lilek!
Sorry for my stupidity but what is the connection of all this with Raymond Caruana’s murder?
[Daphne – For heaven’s sake, do I have to spell it out?]
I think yes, it would be better Daphne, please!
Seen on TV earlier:
‘One. We are One.’ That’s right: One Big Bunch of Idiots.
Tal-WAN rebhu ta’ l-aqwa stazzjon televiziv b’naqra fottiment kif jaf jaghmel Jason. Kunflitt ta’ interess flagranti kien li Red Touch jahdem ma’ Vodafone li kienu sponsors. Jason telqilna wahda bl-ingliz u introduca lil ‘da r-ragel’: id-dentist.
Li-DAN qatt ikkundannawh talli attakka lil-gurnalisti?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGJ-rnd6cds
Minn fejn issibuhom!
Good one, Gahan. Now THAT is what one would say “hebb” ghall-cameraman: Mintoff hitting the camera with his walking stick, so much so that vision actually blurred at one point.
What my sister Corinne did yesterday, on the other hand, was PUT her handbag in front of the lens to stop them filming her. She’s a private citizen and they had no right to invade her privacy. The handbag in question was clearly in focus, and they edited out the bit where she walked up to them smiling before suddenly lifting her bag up to block the lens.
Le, dak “l-assassin” huwa l-Perit u Dear Leader, ma tarax.
Hbieb u li ssemmi gurnalist b’ismu ghal-aktar minn darba quddiem folla nies m’huwiex kundannabli?
Nahseb biex tkun kredibbli trid tiddefendi ‘l-gurnalisti kollha, mhux lil ftit membri tieghek biss.
There is only ONE REAL JOURNALIST in Malta and that is YOU, Daphne. The rest are ALL just spineless REPORTERS who do just that -‘report’. The Institute of Journalists should be there to protect people like you and NOT to condemn or try to stifle you!
If this was the US you would probably be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for having the guts to expose the wrong doings of an important public official who would love to (and potentially has the power to) put you behind bars.
In Malta the opposite happens…how very sad!
I’m sure these are not easy times for you but rest assured that most people are behind you and we will not let these pathetic people silence you.
As Eddie used to say “IS-SEWWA JERBAH ZGUR” – We’re doomed if it doesn’t!
@ Beauchamp,
I would also include Mr. Reno Bugeja of PBS.
All the other reporters are the “cut and paste” type; Shame!
JC.
“Another point: my sister is a private citizen. The Labour Party has no right to chase her through the street while filming her.”
Seriously, does the MLP/Super One know better?
No, of course they don’t.
In another story some time ago Maltastar and Super One claimed their staff were attacked (they weren’t). The story identified Daphne as the attacker and me as a ‘young student’, when she did nothing of the sort and I do not fit their description. And, as in the latest case, the delicious irony was that they have the footage to prove it.
Same cameraman, same difference.
More recently, the ‘man’ behind that deliberately incorrect story was promoted to the post of head of communications in the PL.
That’s the PL’s standards for you.
Fis-Super Wan hemm Jason.
“The Labour Party never changes. Now that it can no longer use thugs to harass those it considers to be its political enemies, it uses its media to bully them instead.”
D, you hit the nail on its head now.
“And as for the Institute of Maltese Journalists, it can go to hell. Unless it issues a retraction immediately, we’re going to court.”
I love this blog.