I refer to my letter The incident on the bus (TMID, 20 October). It is not my intention to continue on this subject, so this will be my last word.
As invited by Mr David Lindsay himself, I did call him at your office and he did explain his behaviour on that bus. He also suggested that I should have contacted him first, before “lashing out” at him in my letter (his words).
While conceding the fact that he could have left his name out of the article, the whole incident has to be seen within the context of the current debate for/against illegal immigrants. How many of your readers, if I had not written that letter and read Mr Lindsay’s reply, would, like me, have formed the opinion that your reporter was simply taking an opportunity to label the Maltese racists?
Your reporter claimed “ethics of neutrality” in not mentioning his behaviour in the incident. First of all, I would have preferred the word impartiality, which has a totally different meaning. Secondly, while not being familiar with the ethics of journalism, I still believe that both the editor and reporter short-changed The Malta Independent on Sunday readers. Perhaps a brief note by the editor, explaining the reporter’s role, would have been sufficient.
Hermann Buttigieg
Birkirkara