The lack of a specific course to educate university students aspiring to be journalists and the absence of accountability were among the major problems raised in a seminar organised by the Fondazzjoni Mikiel Anton Vassalli at the National Labour Centre yesterday.

Opening the seminar, Labour MP Evarist Bartolo said that journalism was not being taught at university and if the medium is not strengthened we risk losing our quest for information. He said that with the current structure of media ownership (political parties and business), it was admittedly hard to bring about change.

Maltastar coordinator Alfred Grixti said that the public broadcasting system should be modelled on the style of the BBC, which was always fair and impartial. He complained about the orchestration of news by the independent media against the Labour Party where news is often pushed aside or omitted altogether.

Di-ve journalist Paul Cachia said that journalism must be critical, enthusiastic and accurate. He said it was important to distinguish between reporters and investigative journalists adding that both have different responsibilities and ethics were of the utmost importance for credible reporting.

The Times journalist Mark Micallef contended that the independent media was drifting around without a soul with very few journalists willing to stand up and be counted. He said there was need for more investigative and courageous journalism because if we remain imprisoned in a cage of fear then we cannot hope to move forward in this field.

Labour Party International Secretary Joe Mifsud said that a journalist had the choice of either being a guard dog or a pocket dog. He stressed the importance of separating facts from comment and lamented the dearth of basic skills and current affairs knowledge of new journalists.

Labour spokesperson on public broadcasting Helena Dalli spoke at length on the importance of a clear editorial policy at the national station. She said that the much-vaunted reforms at PBS had not brought about any coherent direction and commented on the fact that national issues were not being tackled in current affairs programmes.

Among comments from the floor, Professor Henry Frendo was scathing on the fact that only 200 students had chosen history as an option from thousands of secondary school students. Lino Cassar spoke on the lack of satirical journalism while Journalists Action Committee spokesperson Massimo Farrugia said that objectivity was a thing of the past as journalists have started expressing their opinion in articles.