Go chairman Sonny Portelli yesterday denied discussing his company’s news portal di-ve.com with the Office of the Prime Minister, prior to a company decision not to report the general elections. But MaltaToday can reveal the decision by Go to stop di-ve.com reporting the general elections was taken after some senior government officials expressed serious concern that di-ve was leaning too far towards Labour.
Ironically, in the same week di-ve’s decision was made public, the PN’s media company, media.link, revamped its news portal maltarightnow.com in a new bilingual format.
Go’s bizarre decision was announced Tuesday night on di-ve.com, but no reason was given for the company’s decision not to cover the elections, the first time in the history of the news portal which is owned by telephony company Go, whose main shareholders are Dubai-based Tecom Investments.
The prime minister’s press secretary Josephine Vassallo has however confirmed she held a meeting with a di-ve.com journalist, Paul Cachia, on 12 December. But she denied having expressed any concern over the type of news coverage di-ve.com was giving to government.
“I can’t confirm that there was ever any pressure. I keep regular contact with the press. Ours was a friendly meeting in which I offered Paul Cachia our assistance in meeting any shortcomings if they could not keep up with the election coverage.
“I invited di-ve.com to be more involved in government activities because they did not have enough resources, by offering our assistance on press releases for example,” Vassallo told MaltaToday.
Sonny Portelli yesterday told MaltaToday that di-ve.com was not Go’s core business – also saying there were no resources to cover the elections. But di-ve.com is still reporting other news and events, but nothing concerning political events – a proper blanket of silence on the country’s most important of events.
Portelli said: “We are a private company and this is a general election where we feel we should focus on telecoms and not report on each and every party. One of the first things we have to see is if we have enough resources. We don’t have enough resources to cover the elections. We are not investing any more resources because our core business is not di-ve.com.”
At first claiming not to understand “what this hoo-haa was all about”, Portelli first said that politics was not everything di-ve.com reported about.
Asked whether di-ve.com was about to be closed, Portelli said: “Nothing is cast in stone. Our commercial lines are under review, and we base ourselves on what contributes to our bottom line, and this is what shareholders want.”
Asked whether shareholders would be disappointed that the popular news portal will not be offering its readers the important service of reporting the election, Portelli said: “I’m very tranquil on this decision. We have nothing to do with the world of newspapers.”
He said di-ve.com was a “peripheral product” and a “drop in the ocean”.
Yet di-ve.com remained one of the most popular news websites with a tradition to report elections and provide breaking news. It had up to 40,000 unique visitors daily, a phenomenal amount for a local portal.
Portelli repeatedly denied any government pressure, but when asked whether OPM officials had spoken to Go chief executive David Kay over concerns on objective news reporting, the Go chairman said: “Nobody spoke to me. If they spoke to someone from the board, I don’t know about it. As chairman, nobody spoke to me. Kay hasn’t told me anything. Nobody told me anything from di-ve.com.”
The announcement of Go’s “new corporate policy” was posted on the di-ve.com website at 9.00pm on Tuesday: “As a result of new corporate policy, di-ve.com will not, for the foreseeable future, cover political activities and statements as part of its day-to-day operations. We shall focus our news coverage on matters of factual, current affairs and general interest. We trust that you will continue choosing our portal as your daily source of Malta-related news – the management.”
It is reliably understood that government was not too pleased with di-ve.com’s coverage of political affairs. MaltaToday is informed that government officials put across their views on the coverage of di-ve.com to the management at Go.
On Thursday morning, the Journalists’ Committee together with the Institute of Maltese Journalists presented a letter of protest to the Chairman of Go against the newly declared policy. The European Federation of Journalists also condemned Go’s decision.