As if anyone gives a damn what an Austrian MEP thinks – what we want is facts
Ivan Camilleri at Times of Malta – he who didn’t vote in the last general election because he wanted the Nationalist Party to lose (he said so himself, to me) – has seen fit to quiz an Austrian MEP visiting Malta (for heaven’s sake, an MEP?) about how the Austrian ‘citizenship scheme’ compares to Malta’s.
When I see this kind of journalism, I just want to lie down with a cold compress on my forehead and watch something distracting like Downton Abbey (Eastenders with posh people).
Somebody please tell that man that facts about laws are something that should be obtained by the journalist himself. You get the facts on the Austria scheme, you get the facts on the Maltese scheme, and you compare them. You don’t go up to a ruddy MEP and say ‘Please compare the two schemes for me.’ That would constitute an opinion by an MEP – it would not be a factual assessment.
In any case, Camilleri knows very well that there is no comparison between the two at all – presumably he has read the exhaustive Reuters report, published in 2012, about what Austria does and what Henley & Partners claims Austria does. In any case, if he really must interview some people of his own, the proper person is the Austrian ambassador to Malta – OBVIOUSLY – and not a visiting Austrian MEP.
I mean, just look at this:
Asked by timesofmalta.com to state whether the proposed Maltese scheme was similar to the one introduced in Austria some years ago and which is tied to the granting of citizenship through investment, the Austrian MEP adamantly refused to comment stating that this subject did not form part of his mission in Malta.
11 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
Ivan, stop being lazy. You have already shown you are a brat by behaving the way you did in the last election.
Now get over yourself and try and redeem yourself by doing some real journalistic work. The country is in dire need of good journalists. You can be a better journalist (and man, for that matter).
[Daphne – Brat? I’d drop the ‘b’.]
I was buying bread this morning.
It has been reported that ‘I adamantly refused to comment on the hairdo of the check-out girl’.
I hope you’re enjoying this voyage of discovery of the depths of stupidity of the Maltese.
Get this, a few weeks ago, John ‘Switcher’ Bundy “ruled out” ever going back to Net TV.
A few weeks ago, I ruled out posing for a Victoria’s Secret photoshoot.
In other words, the Austrian MEP very likely has absolutely no clue about the Austrian scheme, and much less so about the one being introduced by Malta.
That should read “In other words…”
We had Maltese MEPs who didn’t know what Objective One Status is. I don’t remember any headlines in the Times in this regard.
Have they given his wife the post she moaned about?
Camillieri should have gone for the “G’day, mate, get together later and throw a few shrimp on the barbie” line.
I love Downton Abbey!
It seems a bit strange to me that the media carefully warn about and label any content that involves sex, violence or strong language — but there’s no similar labeling system for, say, sloppy journalism or journalists. Readers deserve better that this.
The fact that the MEP refused to comment makes the ‘news item’ even more banal.