Yesterday week, as the international media spun and speculated that Malta had refused to allow a French naval vessel to bring to land the bodies of between 18 and 21 presumably asylum seekers, which were found floating in the sea at some distance from Malta, there was no one, but no one, minding the shop here.
The Prime Minister, and his Number 2, and Number 3, were all in Rome for the canonisation of Dun Gorg. The acting Prime Minister here had nothing to say. The Parliamentary Secretary responsible for the army was here, it seems, but incommunicado. Nor did the usually loquacious DOI have anything to say, either.
The only person who, on a hot Saturday afternoon, tried to stem the flood of adverse publicity for Malta was the Prime Minister’s hapless communications officer, and she was pilloried by a section of the Maltese press for her pains! Although if she did what she was accused of doing, that is, demanding a correction and to know the sources (something she denies doing) Josephine Vassallo deserved being pilloried.
It was only after at least 24 hours, exactly at 4.51pm on Sunday, that the army came up with what it called “clarifications” with a denial and a timeline. The same statement was released at 5.17pm by the DOI.
Since then, things have gone, at least here, into overdrive and overkill. But who cares, in the world of international news, about a reaction that is 24 hours late? In fact, no retraction whatsoever has been carried by any international news agency, nor would any retraction be expected, for they do things, there, very differently from here where the media is easily cowed by a blustering government.
The fact is the government was totally, absolutely, absent at a time when Malta and its name were under attack. It is a government in dereliction of duty.
The rot is even worse than most people think.
In our line of journalistic duties, our staff is contacted by foreign journalists and through them, we get to know the inane way they are treated by government officials. No wonder that we get a bad press everywhere, and it’s not because we’re small.
For instance, a French journalist with a very important newspaper wanted to speak with Marsa Open Centre manager Terry Gosden but was told by the communications officer of Minister Dolores Cristina, and later also by Ms Vassallo, that she was not allowed to go to the open centre at all without being accompanied and that she wouldn’t be allowed an interview without a government official being present. This journalist became very angry. “In France we do not do it like this,” she commented.
Anyway, it seems Ms Vassallo later got involved but the interview could not be done on Monday because of the rain. It was carried out on Tuesday and the “government representative” only stayed for the first half hour or so
Access to the Hal Far open centre and tent city (also open) was also denied and the journalist was taken instead to one of the homes run by an NGO.
She also left without any official comments from the government. She was told a press conference geared mainly toward the international press was being organised for Wednesday and that she could get all the comments she needed from the press conference. The Wednesday press conference never materialised and she went back empty handed in that respect.
Second example: a German radio correspondent who resides in Italy, came to Malta with the intention of interviewing Minister Tonio Borg. The ministry cancelled the interview half an hour before it was scheduled. It was only when he informed the ministry that all he had were comments from people criticising the government, that the ministry changed its mind and granted a short interview.
More: this same person is the head of the international media in Italy and he offered Dr Gonzi an interview with a guaranteed audience of all foreign correspondents in Rome. News of this offer seems to have reached many people, except the people who should have known and done something about it.
This newspaper has said and reiterated over and over again that this is a government with no centre, with a totally chaotic structure where each minister has a media person who acts as his gofer and personal incense-bearing serf, but when something hits the fan, there is no central structure which takes over, night or day, weekday or weekend, and delivers the government’s response.
Such a structure turns every minister into a satrap, or a baron, and creates misunderstandings and mistakes galore. We then spend millions in PR and branding Malta; meanwhile the government is busily undermining all this hard work. It’s called closing the stable doors...