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The political agenda of MaltaToday is to damage the Nationalist Party. So declared the Administrative Council of the Party, following a lengthy in camera discussion on our independent paper.
The Council decided, to institute libel proceedings against MaltaToday in court. We shall of course be taking up this legal challenge which is an opportunity for us to make known the truth. Legal sanction prohibits me from going into the merits of the case.
It is, of course, heartening to read that our newspaper, three years old, has the capacity to ruffle feathers and is fast becoming a point of reference. It is all the more encouraging to note that no marketing campaign of whatever magnitude could have given us the publicity freely bestowed upon us.
Beyond these observations there is a serious issue at stake, namely the freedom of the press. As I already had occasion to make public thanks to The Times and PBS in my published reply, censored both by the Party newspaper I ran for five years, In-Nazzjon, and the PN TV station NET of which I was its chief executive during its first two years, the libels filed are no more than an attempt to silence MaltaToday’s incisive journalism.
MaltaToday is in no way agenda driven except in accordance with the highest tenets of journalism to serve the public interest. It is reader focused and not institutionally driven, believing that its readers are the true owners of the newspaper. It is not run in the interest of or against the interests of any political party. It places all political parties under the microscope. We do this weekly, thanks to the trust our readers and advertisers place in us. This trust has built up over a period of time as a result of the accurate news and investigative journalism we offer. We issue a paper as a forum for the presentation of all shades of opinion. The MaltaToday project is an attempt to empower citizens and free independent thinking members of the community. It is not driven by press releases nor by the Department of Information ministerial daily events sheet, making us the envy of the other newsrooms and the punching bag of political parties, all too used to controlling the media agenda.
I am somewhat surprised that the Nationalist Party, as evidenced by its legal reaction, is having difficulty coming to terms with the new media reality of the growing autonomy of the independent media. It labels us as having a political agenda to damage the Party. Are we damaging the Party when we champion European membership? Are we damaging the Party when we reveal confidential Labour Party reports? Is all this fair game so long as our scrutiny does not focus on the PN? Are independent papers not allowed to scrutinise the way the parties operate?
I agree that newspapers are duty bound to run accurate reports and this is precisely why we look forward to the opportunity to making the truth known in court. A new media landscape is fast developing in our country where media is fast becoming less institutionally driven and more reader focused. In accordance with European values the seeds of independent journalism are being sown, by a few journalists including those at MaltaToday.
All investigative journalists deserve the gratitude of the country, if not that of the political parties. How ironic that the very Party that believes wholeheartedly in European membership has difficulty coming to terms with and appreciating the quality leap of independent journalism. No modern European Party would dare question the freedom of the press let alone dart the editor of a paper during its Party controlled news bulletin or rush into releasing a series of rhetorical press statements given prominence in its own media and censoring the replies.
A progressive political Party would respect journalists’ full liberty to write and if in disagreement would simply ask for a correction in the newspaper. It would equally respect the readers or listeners right to hear both sides of the argument and reach his or her own conclusions. No such opportunity was given to the readers of the in-Nazzjon or the listeners of radio 101 or the viewers of Net Television.
In the interests of the Nationalist Party it would have been far wiser to approach the matter politically and not legally. A wise move would have been to set up a commission to discover the truth.
When I first got involved in politics I was driven into the battlefield by the burning issue of broadcasting. As I ran the Nationalist Party boycott office against Xandir Malta for two years, I became daily more convinced on the need for pluralism and independent journalism.
When I acquired a fifty percent shareholding in MaltaToday I did so for only one reason: namely to achieve my life long dream of living in a country where the media is not only free, but truly independent. I believed that without the political shackles I predictably encountered when I ran the Party newspapers or the commercial restraints of running the commercially driven The Malta Independent, at MaltaToday I would have an opportunity to see this dream over a period of time realised.
I certainly did not get involved at MaltaToday to invest in a political project in order to damage the Party I am a life long member of. Nor did I get involved to damage the Party I worked with for twenty years serving four secretary generals and one leader.
The accusations thrown at us at MaltaToday are totally unfounded. The suggestions that MaltaToday has a political agenda – to damage the PN - endanger our project, put into jeopardy the employment of our staff and are a direct attack on our investment. Our agenda is only one, the custodianship of the public interest. This involves scrutinising the actions of all public figures including officials of a political Party. Our journalists will carry on doing this without fear or favour.
I remain eternally grateful that working away from a political milieu has given me the possibility to operate in a free environment away from the stifling atmosphere of spin and doctored news. Regrettably, the leaking of information to the few selected journalists and few privileged newspapers with the intention of controlling the media has become the hallmark of modern Maltese journalism. MaltaToday will not participate in this game.
I was schooled to believe that it is in the long term interests of any political Party to build and not to burn bridges with the independent media. It is certainly politically unwise for a political Party to be antagonistic towards the fourth estate. If my memory serves me well and I stand to be corrected, this libel suit, is a first against an editor of an independent newspaper by the Nationalist Party.
Allowing the media a free rein to investigate and comment without interference reaped huge electoral benefits in the past to the Nationalist Party led traditionally by professional strategists. This is no longer the case, the PN central office appears to me, an outsider for the last four years, like a restricted circle operated by persons with a siege mentality all too dedicated to issuing press releases.
The tone of the aforementioned press releases leaves me with a cold feeling that central office is no longer the same home where I spent the best years of my life. I am baffled at the poor judgment shown in attacking our newspaper in such a confrontational manner.
I remain totally committed at MaltaToday to placing the reader and the public interest before my political allegiance to the Nationalist Party.
roger@newsworksltd.com
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