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The best thing that ever happened to Public Broadcasting in Malta has been the disappearance of a PBS journalist from the box.
The journalist is the one and only Ivan Camilleri who was and still probably is the closest to a ‘spin journalist’ in the Republic of Malta. He now works for The Times, and strangely instead of reporting about the real daunting mishaps that happen in Brussels the real reportage is left to the more intrepid journalists at The Times who do not have the added advantage of living in Europe’s ugliest capitals.
Last week’s piece by Herman Grech in The Times was a well-researched piece of work that deserved front page status. The Times minus Ivan Camilleri is fast becoming a good read.
The last time I met Ivan was last week. He crossed the street and with his silly smirk, told me in his boyish voice with that unmistakable slur and magpie laugh that I "deserved every bit" of Olive’s angst.
My riposte to that is of course not fit for publication and I am willing to suffer a few burns in hell for my loose tongue. I trust that the Gods will forgive me.
Ivan the terrible, as we know him in journalistic circles, was born with the unique vocation of rubbishing his own colleagues. I have seen him in action when spending an awful seven days on a fact-finding tour of Brussels. Worse still, he was never fit for public broadcasting with his political blinkers and passionate dislike of certain politicians.
He would denigrate Alfred Sant as if he were the devil himself and boast of how he would nail “the b******”, and then speak with envy against everyone including Bondi, Peppi and even Daphne.
He would talk about everyone and spread rumours, enjoying every bit of it. Throughout his tenure at PBS he was the voice of the PN and the last thing that everyone seems to have not noticed is that he was the journalist to have reported on PBS the not-too-happy decision by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its use of a private travel agency with connections to its then minister.
Perhaps the questions we need to ask are the following:
Who at the time had personally made use of tickets paid for by public funds from the same travel agency and from the same Ministry of Foreign Affairs?
Who used these tickets paid by public funds from the private travel agency when working at PBS to visit Brussels, and of course his spouse?
And who leaked the story to The Times and then reported it on PBS?
Now, Olive will insist that I am a very cruel man. Her husband will say that I am spiteful and flippant. But everyone will agree that nothing can match the malicious verbiage of Ivan Camilleri, the reporter who happens to be brother to Alan Camilleri, the communications co-ordinator for Lawrence Gonzi.
The most surprising thing about Ivan is that he is one of the only two people in the Republic of Malta who praises the acquisition of the Brussels property. The other person is Olive.
At present we are all experiencing the dismantling of public broadcasting, with the public and the Labour Party retaining a silence that is more than just deafening. The architect of this shoddy reform is Austin Gatt, who has arbitrarily chosen to put more emphasis on the financial, rather than the social and cultural value, of public broadcasting.
For years to come, Austin Gatt will be to broadcasting what Agatha Barbara was to education.
To see this cultural fracas through, the services of Mr Michael Mallia, the politically-appointed PBS Chairman, are being utilised. He refuses to talk to the media despite his highly influential and crucial role.
Not a very smart thing to do, most especially when you run something like the country’s public broadcasting, and that's rather more surprising when one recalls that every time one met Mr Michael Mallia, stopping him from talking was as difficult as getting an elephant to dance the fox trot.
Then there is Father Joe Borg, who is credited with all the reforms at PBS. He is the man with the human face and who could have given PBS the chance to breathe.
In another country where such draconian reforms in broadcasting are taking place, journalists would be on the road, the press club would be up in arms and the media seething with anger.
But in the Republic of Malta there are few journalists with time to spare; the press club could indeed stand in for the Association of Deaf and Dumb Saxophonists, and the media... well, they must have other things on their mind.
Back to the scandal of the year: the acquisition of the property in Brussels. The Prime Minister said that Malta’s business magnate Albert Mizzi worked on this one for free and helped iron the deal out. He was one finger close to adding that we should beatify Mr Mizzi.
Mr Mizzi did the same for the Maltese embassy leading to Piccadilly Circus, the PM said. This working for free bit tickles all of us with excitement. But it does not impress us. The same used to be said when Mr Mizzi worked for Air Malta, and was very close to Dom Mintoff.
Mr Gonzi must remember that the government is not in the business of speculation. One does not buy an embassy to sell it later to make a quick buck. Even if this was the case, it is sadly noted that the government has absolutely no grey cells when dealing in property buys.
When contacted to comment on the price, Mr Mizzi said that he had nothing to add. They never do, do they?
We the tax-payers have to provide all the answers. We did the same when all these chairmen settled nicely in other companies and all of them have landed us with big white elephants.
The political responsibility for this purchase rests with Richard Cachia Caruana. In another country they would be asking him to resign. Surely he was the one who said ‘a-ha, a-ha’ when the premises was chosen and surely no-one I am sure dared even to finalise the matter without consulting the man.
Olive is getting all flustered and moving in to defending this purchase not only because her spouse was the lawyer appearing for Government, but because she cannot stand seeing Richard’s name mentioned in vain. Her crusade to convince everyone that this property is worth every penny is one big marketing flop.
Not only is she doing a disservice to Richard but she is also making herself unusually unpopular with her readers.
By the way, who said that August was the silly season?
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