So now he’s just your ordinary Joe circus promoter, is he?
I absolutely cannot bear this sort of half-assed reporting.
Whether it is done intentionally or through negligence, it is a disservice to readers.
Times of Malta is not the only one to do it – the practice is widespread in Maltese journalism.
Individuals are put in the context of the story being reported, and it is left at that, rather than the story being put in the context of the individuals quoted, with the relevant details about that individual.
In a story about Silvio Zammit and animal circuses, what is more important – the significance of who he is, or his views as an ‘animal circus promoter’? It’s most definitely the former, yet the story gives away nothing about his identity and conceals it completely – deliberately or through negligence (because, the false reasoning goes, ‘it has nothing to do with it’).
Nor does the newspaper make any attempt to examine Silvio Zammit’s connection with circuses, given that he is known as the owner of Peppi’s kiosk. Now that is a really interesting angle.
In Malta, you so often have to read newspaper stories armed with prior knowledge to fill in the gaps the newspapers, for reasons of their own, choose to leave in their reports. It’s partial journalism.
Silvio Zammit is John Dalli’s henchman. He has no business or truck with circuses, featuring animals or otherwise. His family made mqaret for generations on the Old College Street side of Tower Road, Sliema, and his own business is still the running of a kiosk there, Peppi’s, where John Dalli the EU Commissioner held meetings with people from Swedish Match.
Zammit is not a circus promoter so much as a fixer. He ‘fixes’ for JS Events, a company whose business it is to bring over to Malta circuses and funfairs and promote them. JS Events is named for Johann Said, whose family have been circus/funfair impresarios for some generations.
Zammit was brought in not because of his amazing knowledge of circuses and promotion, but because of his special relationship with the third man in the John Dalli ‘snus’ scandal, Lotteries and Gaming Authority official Iosif Galea, who has somehow managed to stay out of the limelight despite being the one who landed Gayle Kimberley in this horrible mess by bringing her in as a ‘trusted person’ because he was having an affair with her at the time.
That was before he dragged her across the room by the hair and assaulted her when she tried to call it off (her testimony to the police/the court). Galea is involved in the JS Events circus business.
You will get none of this in Times of Malta’s story. Nor will you find Silvio Zammit identified as the man CURRENTLY undergoing trial for bribery and corruption in the scandal which rocked the European Commission last year, who has already been held on remand pending the posting of bail.
Instead, you get:
Circus promoter Silvio Zammit insisted today that animals should continue to feature in circuses brought to Malta as they were very popular with the Maltese
Here’s the photograph Times of Malta should have used – the only person missing being Johann Said.
Left to right: circus businessman and Lotteries and Gaming Authority official Iosif Galea, European Commissioner John Dalli and ‘circus promoter’ and kiosk owner Silvio Zammit on holiday together in Italy a couple of years ago.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131230/local/circus-promoters-petition-says-animals-should-stay.500819#.UsHBEfRDsR4
He is not a circus promoter.
He is part of the circus. The one which set up tent in Castille on 9 March 2013.
Send in the clowns – literally.
Perhaps one should get the animals to apply for bail so as not to remain behind bars.
It seems to have worked for some.
They only show us where they ‘lodge’ the animals and tell us that they are treated as pets but then they do not show us how they train them to perform and for how many hours they train them. It is still cruelty to animals – making them do something unnatural.
And then when you send a comment to the Times of Malta joining the dots as regards Silvio Zammit, John Dalli, snus, Swedish Match, it is not uploaded.
Likewise with the top search words on internet – as soon as the penny dropped and somebody realized that “daphne’ was among the most popular, the news item disappeared.
This is not the first time this has happened; in their hurry to upload some “stop the presses” news item, they do not realize that the puppet-master will not like it, but it will certainly be taken down later.
This is ambivalent, nay dishonest, reporting by the Times of Malta.
Also include their anti-Arriva campaign starting as soon as contract was awarded to them and not when they started operating in Malta in July 2011.
I was listening to Radio 101 news at midday yesterday and this story was the second item. Either someone in the Nationalist media is really stupid or Silvio Zammit still has strong connections there. Whatever the case, this is really worrying that they gave such prominence to an irrelevant story and a crook like Silvio.
And the angles they used for his story..’the circus owners care so much for the animals that they hired a local vet’. WOW! Maybe someone should have told him that it’s cheaper to do this than to have a vet on the payroll.
He basically tried to get himself some free promotion because the other circus got it the day before. The sorry thing is that all the media totally fell for him.
I, too, was surprised – to put it very mildly – at the Net News item featuring that nasty creature Silvio Zammit as a ‘circus promoter’.
I had hardly expected to be ‘informed’ about his ‘non-offensive’ sidelines. As if anybody cared about whether he had any at all!
This promoter of circuses and scams was last seen taking up the collection at St.Gregory’s Church in Sliema. He seems to have found Jesus in the same way Dalli found Joseph.
If this picture is put up as a promotional poster to attract people to the circus, I am sure it will be a success. We all want to see them live together in a cage.
Maybe at last he is where he belongs.