MaltaToday | 02 July 2008 | Press Duty

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OPINION | Wednesday, 02 July 2008

Press Duty

RENO BORG

In last Wednesday’s edition of MaltaToday, Matthew Vella ventured into the story of a patient at Mater Dei hospital who was treated unethically.
I will not enter into the facts of the case because they are well known. What irked me most was the press release issued by the Ministry of Health attacking the integrity of the press and also the integrity of the family concerned. In similar circumstances, in other civilised countries, faced with such a story, the ministry would have apologised to the family concerned and the public, and would have thanked the media for its interest in the whole event.
The ministry should have also promised to look into the story to establish the truth and take the opportunity to rectify any bad practice. I do not know the persons involved or the medical staff figuring in the case, and for me names do not have any significance.
It is the principle that counts and the morale of the whole episode is not to punish anyone, but to prevent such stories from happening again in the future. There are acute staff shortages at the hospital and until these are resolved, we will never reach the degree of excellence that people expect from the health sector.
Very often we read statements coming out of the ‘information’ or ‘press’ offices of the ministries concerned which do not convince anyone and which do more harm to the ministry than the expected good.
I do not know how the press personnel are employed, how they are selected and whether they have the necessary skills and qualifications. I have the impression that they are chosen more on their political affiliations rather than on any scores of merit. I have had the occasion myself of battling with an ‘information officer’ on the issue of Maltacom’s privatisation. I remember quite well that instead of rebutting my facts and my arguments, the press secretary resorted to insults and a tirade of baseless arguments.
As time passed by, truth was on my side and many of the issues I raised had surfaced for everyone to see. I don’t know whether this person is still employed with the ministry and whether he is still paid out of public funds. The information section of the various ministries should be geared up to inform the public and not to battle out the press and objective critics. I doubt that their press releases are nothing more than an exercise to justify their salaries.
One of the most popular TV presenters has the habit of asking Labour exponents to make an apology on everything Labour speakers say or do; it is high time that the same guy would ask the ministry concerned for an apology on the way it treated the independent press and the family concerned.

Rent reform
I will not dwell extensively on the proposed white paper on rent teform in this issue of MaltaToday but I will do it in the near future when I have had time to read the proposals more thoroughly.
However, at a glance, one can say that there is an attempt to balance the interests of landlords and tenants. From a historical point of view, not only in Malta but also in countries driven by market economy principles, rent legislation has always been regarded as social law. What has been taking place in the rent market for over 50 years cannot be changed in a year or two. This is simply because we are dealing with peoples’ dwellings irrespective of whether they are rented for a pittance or not. You cannot throw people in the streets because they happen to have been renting a residence for 40 years, for which they have no substitute.
One has also to take into account that many tenants are old persons depending on a meagre state pension. There are people who get less than Lm200 a month, and when water and electricity bills are spiralling up, costs of medicines are exploding, and the high cost of food is an everyday reality, one cannot compound the situation by imposing rapid increases in rent. It is true that one has to look at the rights of landlords as well but with the proposed reforms, their plight would improve considerably over a span of time. No one would object to carry out repairs in a residence he is enjoying but the legislator should be careful in imposing high rents because they would not be affordable unless pensions are raised as well. I do not agree that the state should subsidise tenants because in reality, the government would be subsidising landlords out of our taxation.
The distinction between residential and commercial properties makes sense but in this area one has to exercise caution as well as not to disturb unnecessarily small businesses that are experiencing really bad times. The most important aspect of the rent reform is that it has set the ball rolling but no one should expect that the reform would change things overnight. It is a process which should take time not to cause undue hardships on socially vulnerable persons whose means are limited and for whom every euro counts. They do not battle out their plight in the press because they do not have the know-how, but they should be protected as well. I will have time to revisit the White Paper and add my further comments in due time.

Cheap labour
Students are very often criticised for being a ‘parasite’ on public funds by receiving a monthly stipend. However, very often we forget that our students work hard in the summer months and they are sustaining to a large degree the hospitality industry. Hotels do not afford to employ full-timers for the year round because it does not make economic sense to have staff on your payrolls during the winter months when hotels are nearly empty. Still, hotels need some full-time and some permanent staff, but during the summer months they have to double their personnel. This gap is being filled up by our students who want to earn an extra euro and gain work experience. But, unfortunately they are being ridiculously underpaid and in many instances they are being exploited.


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02 July 2008

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