If you read just one thing today, it has to be this
Published:
October 16, 2011 at 10:06am
Go to The Sunday Times immediately and read the leading article (editorial). If you don’t have the print version, I’ve appended a link below.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111016/editorial/Maltatoday-and-the-truth.389310
I like this:
“When there was a negative comment about the managing editor on our website, he called a senior person within our organisation to request its removal.”
It-Times qed jigbor giehu. It had been going downhill for far too long.
Thanks for the tip. Great read.
The Sunday Times editor was particularly reserved on the issue of the Malta Today reporter who fabricates elements of his stories – we in the media know that this man’s issues are far bigger than just that.
I’m not too sure about Malta Today scaling down on attacks on the “famous woman blogger” – I believe you still make it to his editorial ever other week.
As Saviour Balzan, the managing editor mentioned in this leader, I think not all readers will make the link on the John Dalli issue.
He wasn’t helping him out simply because he felt that Dalli may have been a better leader/PM – but he had far more egoistic expectations, which is a big hint on why he attacks both past and current PAs to the prime minister so much.
Balzan is a “povero disgraziato”.
I am sorry to add that the former PN functionary, Roger De Giorgio, a managing director of Malta Today group, is his soul mate.
Oh my God. Thanks for that – how did I miss it this morning?
I missed it because I do not buy The Sunday Times.
The Sunday Times is a must read.
Very good and dignified article – I think that Malta Today should hang its head in shame.
Hey old-timer, if I were you I will not hold my breath till they do.
Iz-zejt dejjem jitla’ f’wicc l-ilma, ghaziza Daphne. Dejjem.
How to put that beautiful Maltese proverb in English? “Oil always floats on water”? Like all descriptive proverbs, it seems banal, but the hidden meaning is that it is in the nature of things that Truth (oil) should one day come to the fore (float on water).
Truth is coming to the fore. You have been working hard to make this happen, and now The Sunday Times has decided that you should not be a lone voice in the desert. Good.
Good because Saviour Balzan is a very dishonest person. I know this from personal experience. I will one day expose this man for what he really is. In the meantime, I am following the advice of a Chinese thinker: if you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.
It is interesting that both the Maltese proverb and the Chinese piece of advice use the image of “floating”. Could be because the subject-matter is pieces of …
The English equivalent is “the truth will always out”.
I know, Grezz, thanks. But that would have ruined my parting shot …
This too makes interesting reading.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111016/local/Not-the-right-time-for-judiciary-pay-rises-Muscat.389287
Muscat is contradicting, publicly, his shadow minister for Justice, Jose’ Herrera.
Methinks there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Game, set, match.
The Sunday Timese editorial should also have mentioned the many times that Saviour Balzan appeared on One TV in discussion programmes during the divorce debate and also on other occasions.
He presents himself as an independent and unbiased journalist and yet,he launches attack upon attack on Lawrence Gonzi and the PN.
Whatever the subject being discussed, Saviour Balzan always ends up criticising the PN and, in spite of his alleged ‘independence’ and ‘fairness’, he never seems to find anything good to say about the government, or bad about Labour and Joseph Muscat. Well, he can’t very well do that when the deputy leader of the Labour Party is his newspaper’s lawyer.
How many real journalists would do that?
Wow. Malta Today have been targeting The Times for months and years.
This is the first time The Times has commented and…what can I say? Wow.
“About effing time” is more fitting than “wow”.
Hurrah! The Times has located its cojones at last!
I think we have “a well-known woman blogger ” to thank for this.
Is The Times finally growing back a pair?
JPO, Saviour Balzan and Malta Today are now over the peak and in an imminent and irrevocable free-fall.
awesome editorial……….ha naraw biex ha johrog Savioiur Balzan issa. Keep up the good work exposing these f……. w…….s and have a good day.
In naval warfare this is known as a “broadside”.
Ouch!
As the Maltese saying goes… Iz-zejt dejjem jitla f’ wicc l-ilma.
I read the leader this morning. Malta Today seems to have a lot of skeletons in its cupboard.
…and she hasn’t yet come around the problem of linking directly from the main post, so she keeps adding links through the comments board. Swell.
[Daphne – That’s not the reason, my dear.]
Kev, shouldn’t you have been preparing lunch at 1311hrs?
They’re eating out today, Grezz.
Sharon makes good EU money as she dumps on it. Gives Kevvy a chance to read the latest copy of ‘Alien Review’.
Oh, there’s another reason, then. Does it verge on the obsessive, or am I missing the rational aspect?
As we say in Maltese “Qaxxritu”
Great editorial and about time, too.
Finally, some good sense from the Sunday.
I’m sorry, but it really sounds like a whole lot of parochial nonsense. Schoolyard games between two children. The detail regarding all of Mr Balzan’s wheeling and dealing is certainly interesting, but its overall impact is diminished greatly by the infantile tone of this editorial.
The “water off a duck’s back” approach would have been a tad more dignified. By wading into the muck the editor has cemented The Sunday Times’ position as one of the leading characters in this tawdry tale.
From the land of the free and home of the brave: NYC Citibank customers arrested for trying to close their accounts: http://youtu.be/fdeuuzXS_sY
And here’s Solzhenitsyn the dissident leader from his bunker in the deep West: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlexJonesChannel?blend=1&ob=4#p/u/5/Y-spCodYzgg
Kev, do they look like the type of customers who have funds in their accounts?
They are probably being arrested because they want to close their accounts without settling the debit balance they owe to the bank.
Here’s the story, Ciccio: http://www.infowars.com/big-banks-refuse-to-let-people-close-accounts/
Kev, these are not libertarians. They are anarchists, and they are bearing red flags.
How do you mean they are closing their accounts? They entered on private premises to conduct a protest, and were arrested.
It’s good to see The Sunday Times hitting back after being for so long under attack from many quarters. It needs some of the old blood in its veins
15th October Black Monday.
16th October is when The Times shows how resolute it always was.
X’dirsa qala Salvu. U qallu jekk trid nieqfu hawn u jekk trid inkomplu,”… ghandi iktar…ghal-lum daqshekk.”
Bejnietna nixtieqhom ikomplu.
The managing editor conducts a series of attacks against a public figure from the Nationalist Party as part of a character assassination attempt consisting of half truths, lies and insinuations.
The managing editor scribbles a kind of apology, almost hidden inside the newspaper, upon receiving a Court Notice of legal action from the person who was attacked.
But in that same issue of Malta Today, the managing editor publishes under his signature a leading article reiterating the same offensive and libelous remarks. How many real journalists would do that?
Matthew Bonanno: the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Leave the kid out of it…he’s just cannon fodder.
George, my point is: if Malta Today hadn’t come up with last Sunday’s story about Matthew Bonanno, would we have seen anything like this editorial in The Sunday Times? I doubt it.
The question remains, however…WHY was Mr Bonanno sacked?
[Daphne – How is that in any way your business or mine, Albert? It’s between him and his employers.]
The editorial tries to reassure us that it was not because of what was written on FB. Fine. Then what was it?
The editorial tries to hide behind the excuse of not wanting to ruin the young man’s future chances.
Yet, in the absence of a reason, the general public will patch the facts together and reach a reasonable conclusion.
[Daphne – The general public does not give a damn, and it’s not any of the general public’s business. The sooner you understand that your curiosity is nothing more than unsavoury prying, the better.]
Fact is that this blogger had posted this on this very blog, the very same moment Mr Bonanno was sacked:http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2011/10/07/fw-update/
[Daphne – What does that have to do with the price of eggs, Albert?]
The connection between what was said on FB, what happened at University and the sacking, is reasonably obvious. Now The Times tells us that, no, this was not the case. Fine. Tell us then!
Tell us why we, the public, are reaching the wrong conclusion. I am all ears.
[Daphne – The public is free to reach the wrong conclusion. That’s what the public does most of the time anyway, especially regarding matters that are not the public’s concern.]
“The question remains, however…WHY was Mr Bonanno sacked?”
If Mr Bonanno was unjustly fired he has recourse to the legal system. He doesn’t need us to defend him.
My answer as an employer would have been “You were on a probationary period and I’m sorry to tell you that you haven’t reached the desired standards”.
Journalism is like walking in a minefield.
He didn’t even cover the story. He was at Wied il-Kbir covering George Pullicino’s clean-up campaign. So this story has nothing to do with his dismissal.
Leave Mr Bonanno alone. He’s looking for a much-needed job. Surely he has talent, and does not need us to pry into his private life. His ex-employer is duty-bound not to divulge any information about him.
John, I actually think that when an employee is under probation, employment can be terminated at any time without a reason.
So, unless I am wrong, that would be more like “You were on a probationary period and I’m sorry to tell you that your job is being terminated.”
I am really surprised that a leading journalist declares that she is not interested in the reasons why a journalist in Malta’s newspaper of record is sacked after an incident concerning comments passed on FB, apparently linked to a public incident involving a government minister.
[Daphne – Because I know for a fact that no political pressure was exerted to have him sacked. That is the only element that would make the story interesting. Otherwise it’s just the usual ‘it’s not working out’. That’s why there’s a probationary period, Albert. ]
Yes, truly, Malta’s democratic dredentials are one of a kind! We are talking of a journalist here, not the receptionist at Progress Press. A journalist occupies a hot seat, and works in the public eye.
[Daphne – Actually, Albert, you’re talking about a very junior trainee who had never worked in journalism and who had been there for just two months. So don’t get too excited. Somebody else was asked to leave – he is now working for Malta Today – and even though he is the son of a vociferou Laburist, nobody linked it to his political beliefs or any of that kind of behaviour, because there were other issues which are none of our business.]
So, yes, an extreme measure such as the sacking of a journalist is of interest to the public. Talking of something which is “not the public’s concern” smacks a lot of the “mhux fl-interess tal-poplu” replies of government ministers in the infamour 70s and 80s.
[Daphne – Quite frankly, you’re overdoing it. Have you any idea how many trainees are not kept on after probation? No, neither do I. Just stop it, will you. ]
“Yes, truly, Malta’s democratic dredentials are one of a kind! We are talking of a journalist here, not the receptionist at Progress Press. A journalist occupies a hot seat, and works in the public eye. ”
Albert, precisely so. Let us stick to the FB comment for a moment, and let us assume the trainee journalist under probation was effectively a journalist. Would you expect a BBC journalist to have an exchange like that reported on FB in this case?
Do you think the BBC would accept those standards of behaviour?
How many real journalists would do that?
If no satisfactory explanation is given by The Times on the reasons for the sacking of the journalist, similary to the Cyrus Engerer case, suspicions will continue to cloud the public’s perception.
[Daphne – I find it disturbing that some people just have no awareness of ethics or privacy issues. This is an employer-employee matter. A (former) employee is free to say why he or she was asked to leave. The employer is not free to divulge the reasons why. This is standard, normal, ethical practice. Of course Allied Newspapers shouldn’t say why he was asked to leave. It would be deeply shocking if they did. How would you feel if you were fired and your employer broadcast the reasons why?]
David, Daphne gave you the correct answer. In all cases, suspicions will always cloud the public perceptions, no matter what.
This is disgusting. This person tries to give the impression as well that he is a fighter for the truth and the underdog. He acts like a tyrant and is the reverse of good journalism. Once in a blue moon I buy Malta Today but I will never even consider to do it anymore. This newspaper deserves a boycott .