Raphael Vassallo
BPC International Ltd, the press agency which handles the account for Smart City, has withdrawn its controversial initiative to request a Lm1,000 (€2,300) deposit from media outlets in return for comments from Smart City officials.
The “smart deposit” system was revealed in an article in last Sunday’s MaltaToday, and provoked an outcry from media organisations such as the Journalists’ Committee and Institute of Maltese Journalists.
Smarting from this criticism, BPC announced yesterday it would reconsider the strategy after pointing out that the €200 million Dubai project had nothing to do with the original arrangement.
“We would like to clarify that the proposed terms of engagement are a BPC initiative,” the agency’s director Carmel Bonello said in a statement issued yesterday.
“We had not discussed these with Smart City at that point in time and we have instructions from Smart City Malta that this procedure should not be used for any press requests related to their project.”
Bonello added that the strategy had been adopted only to ward against unfair or exploitative media coverage.
“Fortunately the majority of news media in Malta operate according to the Maltese journalists’ Code of Ethics and therefore, normally, there is no issue with journalists obtaining information or comments from client organizations via BPC.
“However sometimes, journalists request a face-to-face interview. Naturally, it is at the discretion of every client organisation whether to accept the interview or not and under what terms of engagement,” Bonello said.
“Our professional role remains that of suggesting to our respective clients the most appropriate terms of engagement at that moment in time to ensure fairness and correctness,” he added.
The PR agency’s climb-down took place after a barrage of criticism from media quarters. On Sunday, IGM chairman Malcolm J. Naudi expressed his concern at the development, which he claimed would stifle the flow of information, as well as create discrimination between media organisations with different budgets.
On Monday, the Journalists’ Comitteee issued a statement describing the strategy as “blackmail”, and calling for its withdrawal.
“This action is contrary to the spirit of the free press in Malta,” committee secretary Matthew Vella said. “BPC is keeping journalists away from asking questions to Tecom – who are investors in Malta – with a ridiculous €2,300 deposit which is refundable only if the company is satisfied with the coverage. This is a form of creative blackmail.”
Yesterday, a spokesperson for Smart City Malta reiterated with MaltaToday that the deposit was “exclusively a BPC initiative which was neither discussed nor cleared by SmartCity or SmartCity Malta. For the avoidance of doubt, this was not a SmartCity initiative and SmartCity has neither sanctioned this procedure nor requested BPC to apply on its behalf.”
Contacted by MaltaToday, the Journalist Committee yesterday welcomed BPC’s decision. “The Journalists’ Committee welcomes the BPC’s decision to stop this own-initiative as well as Smart City’s unequivocal statement on this matter.”
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