Just look at the prominence Times of Malta has given the Labour Party’s delegation to China
It’s a tiny, little box in the far bottom corner of page 7 in the print edition. Blink and you’ll miss it.
Unlike many people, I disagree that there is necessarily anything nefarious going on here. I think it is total journalistic incompetence, irresponsibility, and the inability to see a story when it is staring you in the face.
There are so many questions to be asked here – but they are not being asked, just as Times of Malta did not ask them when, shortly after being made leader of the Labour Party, Muscat led a delegation to that country and signed a bilateral agreement with the Chinese government.
Yes, a bilateral agreement between a state and a political party, when bilateral agreements are by definition between two states.
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It’s obvious that Times of Malta has been caught up in the deceitful tactics of the PM and of the Labour Party.
[Daphne – I know that’s what a lot of people think, but I am not convinced. I think it’s a mixture of laziness and incompetence and yes, divided loyalties by some individuals, but others are pretty good at chasing up stories and do so. The result is that you don’t get a cohesive feel to the newspaper and there’s no clear editorial line which emerges.]
Like the “Go as you please” horses races at the Marsa race track ?
It is very clear. Times of Malta is not showing a sense of independence from government in its journalism. Do we need to add more to that?
And this is not just a perception. One can feel that they are avoiding controversy.
Daphne, I disagree with you on this one. Maybe it is true that there might be a few remaining professional reporters who attempt to pursue a story, but they are either powerless or censored.
Why did Joseph Muscat visit the editor immediately he became prime minister, and why was the Times and a particular journalist selected for the China propaganda tour, why was the Times given airtime on TVM, and why is the Times the government’s newspaper of choice to leak fake or spin stories, etc, etc.
At this stage, it cannot keep on being attributed to incompetence. It gives you the sensation of being strategic. Like this, Times of Malta cannot be criticised for not reporting the event.
Toni Abela and the Labour Party should not be meeting members of the Chinese government, but the central command of the Chinese Communist Party.
These are not fine distinctions.
They shouldn’t be meeting them at all.
I naively ask what business is Malta’s presidency of the Union to the Chinese? Should we expect our star on the Union flag to change to a tiny hammer and sickle?
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-10/25/c_133741218.htm?
I actually think this is a mixture acute laziness and a weird preference from the editors for stories that would make great headlines in tabloid rags.
Note the detailed coverage of anything to do with the Catholic Church, the LGBT, Tal-lira clocks, Arriva busses, hunters and other perceived “popular” news – and compare it to the blasé coverage of a blatant lie to the people from the highest office.
What’s become of Minister Refalo’s undeclared millions for instance? Or Mallia’s half a mill. They’ve been buried.
The Times of Malta is leaning towards a tabloid preference which is why people are turning to other media – including this blog – for the news that matters.
I also have a sneaking suspicion that the minute you, Daphne, get a scoop, uncover a story, or does the media’s job for them, The Times backs away from that piece biex ma npaxxuwiex, lill-Daphne.
[Daphne – Your use of the word ‘tabloid’ as an insult is misplaced. Mallia’s half-million and Refalo’s extensive property portfolio, to say nothing of Chris Cardona claiming that the money is his bank account came from Ukraine with his wife, are exactly the sort of stories a British tabloid would go for, and do well.]
Daphne, we need a post on why you were fired from The Times.
To me, it’s clear as day.
[Daphne – I was fired as a columnist with The Sunday Times after I wrote a column pointing out the obvious: that the deputy prime minister’s daughter should not be defence counsel to the man accused of commissioning the murder of the prime minister’s personal assistant. I said that it was an intolerable situation in a normal democracy, but then Malta was not a normal democracy. The Sunday Times refused to publish that piece and I was so annoyed, because it was so obvious why they refused to publish it, that I took it to The Malta Independent. When Guido de Marco received word that I had been engaged by The Malta Independent as a columnist, he rang a couple of my employers and tried to put pressure on them. His exact words were: “If you don’t let her write for you, she’ll have nowhere to write.” Let her write? That shows how much he understood the role of a columnist in a democracy, given that he saw me as somebody writing to get a message across who had to fight to get a platform, rather than as somebody readers wanted to read and whose column was purely a business decision for a newspaper. They ignored him and in any case he is now dead, so let’s not discuss that. I have reason to believe that the real reason Times of Malta are not going to town on the power station contract/s is the identity of a couple of the lawyers involved in those very contracts.]
Thank you for this explanation.
Bingo! I’m glad you know about the lawyers bit.
I suppose you also know about the links to 135 Holland Park Avenue.
Details to the max in due time.
Ghax Daphne thobb titkellem maghna.
@Jozef
Information comes in over time.
When information is laid and buried like a snake in the earth, the sighting of the tail gives no precise detail on where the head’s been and the no complete picture of where the fangs have been at work.
In due time, yes. A sense of timing is essential, always.
True.
Then what is it? Just laziness? Because there’s method in it.
Ahjar naraw minn telgha ghax hekk ikolna hjil ta xinhu gej.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141025/local/two-maltese-named-among-the-worlds-craziest-people-in-politics.541178
Times of Malta today has a major problem. It has no real editor and no sense of direction.
Some journalists are allowed to dominate while others are restricted to working on minor stories. It is clear that the reform which was supposed to have been introduced two years ago in the editorial department failed miserably.
Too many people are talking about it and inferring that Mario de Marco is somehow responsible for this because he wants Simon Busuttil, who beat him to the leadership, to fall at the next electoral hurdle.
Whether this is true or not is almost irrelevant now as the perception is so widespread. Either way, de Marco should be cognizant of what is being said, of how it is affecting both Times of Malta’s credibility and his own credibility in the PN, and do something about it.
The prime minister’s chief of staff built the Progress Press/Allied Newspapers building on the Mriehel Bypass, supplied its print machinery and continues to supply its paper.
Of course he was paid (we trust) but maybe somebody got a secret cut on all of that and now has a problem.