Micallef embarrasses guests at PL think-tank launch
David Darmanin The launch activity of a progressive political think-tank – dubbed Ideat, under the auspices of the PL – was yesterday marked by Labour exponents complaining about the local media’s bias against their party.
They pointed fingers at The Times of Malta, The Malta Independent, PBS and Where’s Everybody as part of the reason why the PL has lost three consecutive elections.
Angles taken during a scheduled debate starkly contrasted with an agenda that should have steered clear of analysing internal party affairs. But amid internal strife leading to the PL’s general conference in January, incumbent secretary-general Jason Micallef could not help lashing out at MaltaToday journalist James Debono, who was invited as one of the guests on the debate panel.
“This morning, James Debono is being presented as some Labour militant, but in fact he has always worked with people whose interests are anti-Labourite,” Micallef said.
Meanwhile, veteran journalist Godfrey Grima, who was also a member of the panel, tried dissuading Micallef from pursuing his argument, saying: “This is unfair Jason. It’s unfair of you to say such things.”
During his intervention, Debono initially chose not to make any reference to Micallef’s manner of treating guests.
“Under Joseph Muscat, we have started seeing a PL that is now communicating with the middle class, with those who subscribe to a less confessional mentality and the liberals,” he said. “I think Muscat’s last speech prior to the European Parliament elections has been very persuasive. However, with regard to the divorce issue, I am scared that with the way it’s being handled it may end up not being passed in parliament anyway.”
Turning to Micallef, Debono said: “I don’t know to what Jason Micallef was alluding to when he said what he said. I think I will let my work and my writing speak for itself. We have degenerated into partisan dichotomy and personal attacks, but leaving that aside now… The progressive politicians must address abuse, setting up the proper childcare structures…”
It was Godfrey Grima in the first place who brought to the debate the media issue. In his initial intervention following an introductory speech by young Ideat Chairperson Aaron Farrugia and an initial intervention by Labour MP Evarist Bartolo, Grima explained why he felt bored.
“We have been talking for 15 minutes and I haven’t heard anything new to what we used to discuss in my youth,” he said. “Whatever Aaron (Farrugia) said was said in the same way by Evarist (Bartolo) when he was Aaron’s age. Nothing has changed. If this think-tank aspires to have any value, the issues it chooses to discuss must be in a Maltese context. The country has not strengthened its values and our lifestyle has not improved over the years. The personality of the Maltese has not developed at the same rhythm of our economy.
“Journalism and politics are very much alike,” he continued. “To be a good journalist you must be credible, and it’s the same with politics. The PL does not manage to garner that extra 2 per cent votes, and this is because it fails to be credible enough.”
Answering a question posed by a conference attendee on the role of communication, Grima said: “There is a massive perversion where the media in Malta is concerned. Parties should dismantle their own media, it is ridiculous. National media also goes against the Labour Party – and this is exaggerated gate-keeping. Whenever the PL delivers a message through its own media, it risks being less credible. It is not enough to tell the truth – what matters is for that truth to become accepted.”
“Godfrey Grima likes to provoke,” Labour MP Carmelo Abela said from the floor. “The media is what it is, and I can’t see why the PL should give away a weapon so that somebody else can use it against us. When people follow issues in the media, they closely associate them to reality. We lost the past three elections and the media has had a huge role in making our ideas and messages look less credible. The Times would spin a story of ours into a pro-PN message, and places the message we would have originally intended to deliver, in between the lines.”
Agreeing, Bartolo said: “There is no chance on earth that The Times or The Independent takes an editorial line in favour of the PL. Can you imagine our leader meeting Guido de Marco to decide on the Times’ editorial policy? Or meeting Bertu Mizzi to discuss what’s written in The Independent? It can only be done if there is a compromise similar to the one made by Blair and Murdock. I have already said we should dismantle our media. But first there should be a proper PBS, because at least as we are, we can contribute to diversity. When The Times feels the need to destroy us, it destroys us. I feel the PL should grow in online media, and this way we can also avoid the blocs of interest that there are against us within The Times and The Independent.”
Holding strong to his original argument, Grima insisted that the media no longer dictates opinion. “In 1996, every newspaper carried harsh opinions against the PL, but Sant was still elected. The media does not have the influence to change people’s minds, and the party that loses must admit that its media arm has not reached its desired results. The more perverse the media is, the less it is believed. There are scientific arguments backing this.”
This time referring to another media house, Bartolo said: “As much as I may agree with Godfrey on the credibility of the media, the strength of it directs viewers to what they should think about. When you have a media company that has contractual interests with the government, it ends up setting the national agenda. It can decide to air a programme on devils, or on some other trivial issue – to divert attention from the real issues.”
Guests on the discussion panel included Ernst Stetter and Jessica Asato.
An economic and political scientist, Stetter is Secretary General of the newly created Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS). He is also a regular commentator on EU affairs in the media.
Asato is Acting Director of the New Labour pressure group Progress. She was previosuly a researcher at the Social Market Foundation think-tank, specialising in health policy, as well as a former Chair of the Young Fabians, the UK’s only youth think-tank. She now sits as an Executive Member of the Fabian Society. She has also been a former Vice Chair of Young Labour and worked for the Labour Party during the 2005 General Election campaign. In July 2008, she founded the Gareth Butler History Trust, in the memory of her late husband, to fund history trips for disadvantaged young people.
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