TVM, the public service broadcaster, has a new line in xenophobic coverage and the exposure of private individuals, in breach of the law
TVM has gone steadily downhill over the last few months.
Whoever runs it now does not seem to understand that a country’s public service broadcaster is in a completely different category to private media and must keep to a particular set of standards.
Its news website has taken on a life of its own, diverging from the radio and TV news, and is particularly awful.
I am left with the creeping suspicion that some of the ‘news’ stories it now features are the work of former L-Orizzont staff who have been shifted, in a Malta Taghna Lkoll move, to Television Malta, for they are exactly the sort of offensive rubbish you will find in that newspaper.
Take this current story, for instance. Not only is it not news, but what TVM considers to be the news angle is in fact xenophobic and racist prejudice: that a man makes a fuss about being left waiting in a hospital queue is not news, but if he is Syrian, then it is news, and the angle is ‘how dare he; this is not his country’.
There’s another point: this man is a private citizen.
It is a breach of the law to expose private citizens in this manner on the media, whether print, broadcast or internet.
If this man writes to the Data Protection Commissioner with a complaint against TVM, the Data Protection Commissioner will be obliged to write formally to TVM demanding the removal of the video, failing which TVM faces a fine of up to Eur20,000.
But there is worse.
TVM did not take that film, witness the incident or speak to the people it quotes.
It does not even know the man’s name or what caused his behaviour. It did not seek to obtain his side of the story or go to the hospital to speak to staff (and here we are working on the assumption that it is legal to report on private citizens in this manner, which it is not).
The public service broadcaster simply accepted a film shot by somebody on his mobile phone and accepted that person’s version of events, including the xenophobic and hostile remarks he says were passed in the queue and which TVM reports with what is clearly approval.
Whoever is responsible needs to sit those people down and explain to them that TVM is not L-Orizzont and reporting standards have to be different – and I don’t mean only politically, but generally. This is appalling reporting, xenophobic, and invasive of a private citizen’s legally-protected privacy.
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http://www.tvm.com.mt/news/fmater-dei-sirjan-jipprentendi-li-jidhol-u-jinqeda-bla-ma-jistenna/
Maltastar-style
Reminds me of the ‘Xandir Malta’ era. Back to the nightmarish times. Lord have mercy.
This is what happens when xenophobes taken from amongst Malta’s brown-shirts at the Orizzont are allowed to take over. TVM taghna llkoll.
This is not just a violation of a private citizen’s right to privacy and a breach of the law in that regard. It also exposes confidential matters of health.
And yes, it is absolutely xenophobic.
Shame on TVM.
You can trust Labour to do this stuff.
TVM has gone steadily downhill over the last few months.
You would have been quite correct if you had also added:
The PL government has gone steadily downhill over the last few months. The government departments are now run by ex-ONE, Kulhadd, L-Orrizzont and MLP nomenklatura.
It’s one big mess.
The million dollar question is: how could this incident constitute news worth reading?
TVM are themselves becoming news with their ridiculous xenophobic approach and half-baked tales.
Shame.
He might be a Maltese citizen with a bought passport.
He would have enough money to go to a private dentist and not wait in a long queue.
This is serious, really serious, for it leads to the acceptance and normalisation of racism and xenophobia.
Honestly, I have seen much worse “waiting time” antics in my line of work and from Maltese people. And how do they know that he is Syrian?
I hope no one from the medical staff divulged info because that is confidential. To think that money taghna ukoll was wasted on this item of literally no news value!
Power is in the hands of these energetic and smart women. A dentist, a maritime law specialist and a human rights lawyer.
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-03-12/news/marlene-farrugia-takes-oppositions-side-on-need-for-discussion-on-power-station-4237918208/
http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2014-03-12/news/fenech-says-fsru-unit-should-be-placed-outside-bay-gas-pipeline-connected-to-land-4230938625/
Well, trust Marlene Farrugia to insist on discussing the new power station one day after the BWSC plant’s been sold to the Chinese.
Fil-mument propizju she said, a couple of weeks before the election, implying all details will out by then.
Give us a break Marlene, you’ll get your social policy. Or resign.
They protect Chinese millionaires with a police escort but abuse (because it IS an abuse) vulnerable refugees and immigrants.
My god! Jgholli lehnu! Think of the children!
This was last December.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131220/local/Drones-could-be-used-to-monitor-migration-routes.499733
‘..Deploying surveillance drones on known migration routes is a step closer to reality after the EU council endorsed a Maltese proposal to include immigration as part of the common defence and security policy.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the drones will serve as an early detection system that could be deployed on the sea or over the desert, which he described as “no man’s land”….’
This was last Monday.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140310/local/government-considering-turf-airstrip-for-gozo-pm.510118
‘…The prime minister said that the government was also finalising plans to assist in research and the the manufacture of drones. So far two companies have shown interest, he said..’
Whose drones?
Just keep an eye out on the companies listed in this article. I think the PM should be asked to disclose the names of the two companies involved in the talks, and don’t give me commercial sensitivity.
http://www.voanews.com/content/us-lists-new-iran-sanctions-on-several-chinese-firms/1601679.html
China was caught supplying small arms via Algeria three years ago to Ghaddafi, missile technology to Iran last year and lately most of the arsenal used by Assad, not to mention reports of Chinese soldiers in Syria.
What, in the name of all that’s decent, is Muscat playing at?
The worst part of all this story is the fact that these xenophobic perverts assume outright that he is in Malta under a particular status.
They are so flabbergastingly ignorant and senseless that they are not aware that there is a community of Syrians in Malta who have been living here for decades as much as there are British, Italians, Germans, Libyans, Saudis, Indian and other communities who are living decently, working honestly (not to say exemplary) and paying as much if not more taxes that some Maltese dare to evade.
Yes indeed, the newscaster becoems the news that he/she is xenophobic, stupid, arrogant and a criminal infringing and flouting the law. That is the news.
Shouldn’t someone lodge a complaint with the Broadcasting Authority?
Sorry, but you did not tackle the main questions: Are the facts reported true or false? And if they are true, are they of interest to the general public?
[Daphne – Mrs Vella, a private citizen protesting loudly about waiting time in a hospital is not news, not for any media and particularly not for the public service broadcaster. And quite apart from the fact that a private citizen protesting against a queue is not news, exposing a private citizen on television in this manner is against the law. The public service broadcaster’s ‘news angle’ seems to have been that the man in question is Syrian, therefore he has some cheek. That is not a news angle, not for any media and most certainly not for the public service broadcaster. If you begin making a ruckus in a hospital queue, does that give me the right to film you and upload it on this website along with unpleasant remarks people made about you? No, because you’re a private citizen. And given what Syria is going through right now, hostile emotions to Syrian refugees are totally out of order and definitely have no place on the public service broadcaster or anywhere else but the sort of anti-immigration forums you enjoy, Mrs Vella.]
But really, what’s new about this situation? I see loads of Maltese people in Malta doing it, I also see, much to my embarassment, Maltese people skipping queues abroad, starting from the boarding gates at any airport, right down to the queues in shops.
The worst example was in a long queue at the Eiffel Tower. A Maltese family with their “ejja l’haw ha nidhlu malajr” attitude attempted to slip in half-way through the queue. When my (foriegn) husband stopped them, he was greeted by a wave of insults in Maltese. I retorted in Maltese, the family wasn’t expecting that.
Daphne, is there a way I can get your email address please? Thanks.
[Daphne – dcgalizia@gmail.com]
Whatever he is, no one should film him just because he is a foreigner. Maltese people do this everyday but if it is a foreign person, people will get on their ‘qed jinvadulnha l-pajjiżna’ bandwagon and all the racist bigots will come out in full force and accuse him of bad behaviour while other Maltese do the exact same thing and get scot-free because ‘għandom id-dritt isemmu leħinhom’.
As far as I know, TVM news portal is now in the hands of Charles Sacco, husband of Susan Mulvaney and son of Remig Sacco. Enough said.
And what’s wrong with expecting not to have to wait? Muscat vouched we wouldn’t.
These haughty illegal migrants should be publicly whipped with a cat o’ nine tails.
They don’t do themselves any favours with their arrogant behaiviour and entitlement mentality.
You have raised a valid point. What further action will be taken by TVM and the authorities concerned?
Section 82A of the Criminal Code (Chapter 9 of the Laws of Malta) makes it a crime to foster racism in print and by word.
I sincerely doubt whether Labour’s Commissioner of Police knows about this.
If he is, let him show it by taking action in the Criminal Courts.
If he is not, let him show it by resigning his post.
A dose of reality: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26116868. Hopefully the xenophobes, supremacists, and racists among us might start understanding the plight of our Syrian neighbours and find it in their heart to empathise and help out.
I am also disgusted by the article’s clear approval of the comments passed with a ‘lehen sod’, which are clearly xenophobic.
I am the Egyptian (not Syrian) mentioned in the article. Thank you for standing up for me. I’ve been living in Malta for the past 15 years and I’ve always respected the Maltese people and authorities. I was very saddened with this xenophobic coverage. I am sure that if it was a Maltese person who complained in the same way I did, he wouldn’t have been exposed the way I was. I think that I have all the right to do what I did.
[Daphne – You have a right under the law to write to the Data Protection Commissioner about this and request that he in turn writes to Public Broadcasting Services Ltd/TVM requesting that they remove that video because it was filmed and uploaded without your consent and you are a private citizen. TVM will have to comply or face a very heavy fine. There are no costs involved to you.]