Mark Anthony Falzon: “Independent writing is not a pathology, but its opposite.”
This is from Mark Anthony Falzon’s column in The Sunday Times today:
The second means by which citizens can organise themselves into a vertebrate Opposition is through the media. The so-called social media are particularly well-placed in this respect, given their accessibility. The problem is that we’ve yet to understand what independent commentary is all about – possibly a legacy of whole generations of minds moulded by Rediffusion and Xandir Malta.
Be that as it may, many people seem to think of independent commentary as some kind of State newspaper, bound by statute to serve up the official, respectable and balanced version. I find it astonishing, for example, that we speak of blogs and writing and commentary as a pathology. The staple question set to (Nationalist, mostly) politicians seems to have been borrowed from Catholic baptismal liturgy: “Do you renounce The Blogger and her works?”
Writing and blogs are, in fact, the exact opposite of a pathology. They are the lifeblood of a healthy democracy. If there is a problem with Daphne Caruana Galizia, it is that she is not three people writing three blogs. I’m saying we need more Daphnes, not less. Strong writing will have its foibles, but it has the power to organise readers into a party-free opposition to be reckoned with.
“Do you renounce The Blogger and all her works?”