Every March, Malta’s media outlets are regaled on a daily basis with squabbles over the numbers of benches or pavements installed by one local council or another, or with the number of months a particular council has been working on a roundabout, a street or road signage.
Practically every day, the Malta Labour Party issues its percentages of different council’s successes in fulfilling their electoral manifestos. Certain newsrooms are also known to have running bets on what the day’s percentages will be, and guesstimates are usually pretty accurate depending as they do on whether the council in question is Labour or Nationalist-led.
The Nationalist Party’s local council electioneering is, by contrast, of a lower key and usually involves ministers and party officials visiting Labour-led localities up for election and pointing out the good work the central government has carried out for the people of the area.
Unfortunately, out of either a sense of obligation, or indeed duty for the politically-oriented media, the stories are swallowed hook, line and sinker by most media and the ploys are rarely labelled for what they really are.
In the meantime, the real issues of national importance are placed on the backburner to simmer until after the electoral fallout has subsided.
One such instance this week, however, has irked the Union Haddiema Maghqudin (UHM). The union’s general conference was attended and addressed on Wednesday by no less than three party leaders – Lawrence Gonzi, Alfred Sant and Harry Vassallo. And while what the leaders said in their addresses held perfectly valid points, it is the way in which the event was reported that has irked the UHM for the second year running.
Describing the coverage of Wednesday’s conference by certain media as “obscene”, UHM secretary general Gejtu Vella is incensed with the way Malta’s political media chose to focus on pushing forward their parties’ local council election agenda rather than reporting on issues of national importance discussed at the conference.
“To put it mildly, I must stress and emphasise our disappointment about the coverage of the event by the political media,” Mr Vella commented.
Mr Vella objected particularly to the way the news outlets of Super One and Net Television covered the event, choosing to report exclusively on what the leaders of their respective political parties said in their addresses to the UHM’s 30th general conference, without paying any heed whatsoever to a number of issues of national importance discussed at the conference.
He added, “It is very disappointing, but not only that. The media have a very strong tool in their hands and rather than trying to use that tool to the best of their ability, they are instead acting as political tools. All this media do is push their political agendas by focusing on petty issues, while avoiding the issues of real importance for the country.
“Instead of ensuring that turfs are safeguarded, it is the national level that must be safeguarded. The benefits of that will then trickle down to each and every person, which will affect the entire population.”
For the conference the UHM had lined up an impressive set of five policy documents drawn up by the likes of David Spiteri Gingell, John C. Grech and Lino Briguglio on issues including sustainability, social justice, social dialogue through the MCESD, co-operatives and Malta’s competitiveness post-EU membership.
And while the rapporteurs addressed the conference in clear layman’s terms, Malta’s politically-biased television media reported nothing of the issues discussed and instead chose to stick to blanket reports of their respective political leaders’ discourses.
The UHM is unfortunate enough to have its anniversary fall in the lead-up to yearly local council elections, a time when the numbers of benches and pavements in different localities take priority over the real issues affecting the country.
The same happened last year, when the issue presented for debate by the UHM was the euro. At the time the UHM had raised its objections with the Broadcasting Authority and Mr Vella had also alluded to last year’s situation in his opening speech on Wednesday.
“Does this mean that in the first three months of every year, no one should organise a national conference on real issues simply because of local council campaigning?” Mr Vella asked. “Does the whole country or the economy come to a standstill?
“Elections are important, and local councils are important as well, but they should not come at the expense of workers’ real bread and butter issues.”
The UHM intends raising the issue with the Broadcasting Authority and the relevant Maltese journalism organisations.
“I need to stress that the media has a very important role to play in our society,” Mr Vella added. “We have had enough of our politicians fighting on a regular daily basis – that has to stop. We need to have the technocrats speak out loud and clear about what we need to do, which is exactly what we had provided at the conference.”
In addition to the issue of political media outlets, Mr Vella pointed to the Public Broadcasting Services as another media outlet in need of a better conveyance of information to the masses.
“PBS also needs to be addressed. The station had undergone a restructuring programme and, although the organisation is no longer running at a loss, there is instead a huge deficit of information.
“While the Broadcasting Authority ensures that if the Leader of the Opposition is screened for 30 seconds, the Prime Minister is screened for 30 seconds as well – and the balance is maintained – in the process it fails miserably in reporting the real issues.”