On Sunday, the Labour Party owned newspaper Kulhadd published an article, claiming that this newspaper had been given ‘instructions’ by Castille to send a photographer and a journalist to report on the visit by graduands to PM Lawrence Gonzi.

The issue, of course, refers to the notaries who swooped on Castille to lift the PM shoulder high. Kulhadd reported that The Times put the picture on its front page, contrasting it to scenes in the UK where students are violently protesting against hikes in education fees.

Kulhadd also claimed that the Independent was ‘instructed’ to cover the event. The newspaper also claims that while the other newspaper went ahead with the story to please Castille, TMID did not, and this for reasons of logistics because our offices are in St Julian’s, while those of The Times are in Valletta and round the corner from the PM’s office.

Well… Let us set the record straight. TMID did in fact publish a photograph of the event on an inside page. What we did not do is draw parallels to the UK. We took it for what it was, a good photo for a caption, nothing more and nothing less.

At no time were we ‘instructed’ by Castille to go and cover the event. In actual fact, we were contacted about it after it took place and we were offered a photograph, which we published… it was a good picture. But, we did not feel that comparisons should be drawn between Malta and the UK.

In fact, Kulhadd did not even bother to check our official position, as declared in a leading article. Our position is that we did not feel comfortable comparing UK students to Maltese because the issues are totally separate. We will not go into a detailed explanation, but this newspaper felt, as it had every right to, that the whole event was a bit of theatre for the cameras. We also felt that the PM’s behaviour was inappropriate in terms of being lifted shoulder high – we see nothing wrong, though, in him congratulating the students. In short, we did not take the bait.

But the PL’s media machine decided to turn this one against TMID, for reasons only known unto themselves. One fails to understand how a ‘newspaper’ that is nothing more than a political bulletin board and propaganda machine can have the gall to make presumptions about our editorial policy, ‘instructions’ from Castille and our logistics!

We have stated our position. The government accepted the (harsh) criticism we gave it, and now, we feel that the PL’s newspaper should also eat a bit of humble pie. But then again, what can one expect when we live on a tiny rock where both political parties have their own media?

The reporting is always going to be skewed and issues are always going to be twisted. TMID knows what its policy is, we know why we took the decision that we did; and we stand by it. If TMID’s editorial policy is so open to scrutiny, perhaps Kulhadd can enlighten us as to theirs… or does it change on a weekly basis? Foregone conclusion.