The Malta Union of Teachers’ attack against one of this newspaper’s journalists at last Sunday’s demonstration was, to say the least, deplorable.

To refresh the memory, this newspaper carried a front page story last week to the effect that a number of teachers have become “disgusted”, their words, due to the fact that their union, a professional and not a general union, has become politically charged. The report also brought to light the fact that a general union, the UHM, was to open its doors to such disgruntled teachers.

The main source of their disgruntlement was that MUT head John Bencini, and the union by default, had teamed up with the Labour leaning General Workers’ Union and the Labour Party for last week’s demonstrations.

The MUT head’s actions were deplorable firstly due to the fact that the issue he had taken such exception to, in reality, had no direct connection with the subject matter at hand, that being the revised energy tariffs. The tariff revision is not affecting teachers’ work, unless they are to be instructed to teach by candlelight to save on schools’ energy bills.

Invoking the name of a journalist, completely out of context, to a bloodthirsty crowd of thousands that greeted the naming with boos, would have been deplorable even if the article in question had been directly related to the demonstration itself. Mr Bencini did this twice in quick succession.

It was also deplorable because it was clearly an, albeit unsuccessful, attempt at intimidation.

The journalist in question dared to have the audacity to report how many teachers have become discontented with their union’s increasingly political stances to the extent that they are considering defecting to another union. Is this not news, when union members are saying so on the very day of the demonstration that has irked them so much?

The union has requested a right of reply on today’s front page. It is not there. The MUT’s letter to this newspaper is being published a few pages after this one.

And what were these so-called ‘attacks’ against the union? There was last Sunday’s article, which certainly was not an attack on the union nor its leader but rather a report on the worthy subject of trade unionism; the only other news article that could be construed as an attack was that which criticised the MUT for not allowing teachers to voluntarily set up a password protected ‘virtual classroom’ so as to assist absent students and students who wanted to better revise for exams. We know of several teachers who would like to start such an initiative but which are being prevented from doing so by the union.

For the record, the journalist who bore the brunt of Mr Bencini’s attack last Sunday has written no less than five in-depth features on education over the last four months on subjects dealing with how the college system operates and how students are being prepared for the transition from primary to secondary, the new Pembroke school, a success story of a neglected school in Naxxar with unruly students that has been transformed into a modern school where everyone stands a chance, and special schools reform. We will not even list the numerous other features and articles published by this newspaper in the recent past highlighting aspects of the educational system.

One can hardly accuse this newspaper or the journalist in question of a prolonged attack on teaching as implied by Mr Bencini. We can, however, be accused of applying a dedicated focus on education.

That the Institute of Maltese Journalists deemed it fit to issue a statement condemning an assault with a deadly handbag in the immediate wake of this week’s media circus surrounding the Daphne Caruana Galizia-Consuelo Scerri Herrera court case, but only issued a statement on Mr Bencini’s attack on Stephen Calleja five days later is, considering the respective magnitudes of the respective incidents, simply pathetic.

Those of us in the media have seen both journalists who lodged the complaint against Mrs Caruana Galizia endure far, far worse verbal abuse and threatened physical abuse than the ladies in her posse could ever be capable of dishing out and, to our recollection, no such complaints were lodged with any press associations or the police in these other cases.

That they have done so because a woman blocked their camera with her handbag and suggested a better means of personal hygiene is also simply pathetic and symptomatic of the depths to which some are forced to plunge to for any slight nuance of perceived political gain.

We hold no grudge against the MUT, or any of its council members. We do, however, feel duty bound to work to the best of our abilities to ensure that the country’s children receive the best possible education they can get.

When a teachers’ union, or anyone else for that matter, stands in the way of that, we will always take an unequivocal stance…not in support of the union, teachers, but in support of students, who are, after all, what really matters within the context.

We do not shy away from controversy, not do we court it. But when there is controversy we will report it, and no amount of attempted intimidation will dissuade us from doing so.

An apology from the MUT is due and expected.

Rallying for the environment

Against quite a different backdrop, Malta’s environmentalists are due to take to the streets this coming Saturday to protest against all that is going wrong with the environment.

Saturday’s rally takes place within a completely different context to last week’s energy demonstrations. Here there are no political connotations, and no ulterior motives behind the call to make the public’s voice heard. One can also safely venture a prediction that there will be no name calling and no unwarranted insults lobbed towards the country’s politicians.

This is a case of civil society, civil being an operative word here, making themselves heard – a worthy cause and one that we would like to see much, much more of. Unless the public makes its voice heard, politicians will not respond.

This government has been far too lackadaisical when it comes to its environmental onus, one that was taken under the wing of the Office of the Prime Minister itself in this legislature, and where it remained even after the Cabinet reshuffle.

When the same exercise was carried out with respect to the finance ministry in 2004, with the aim of ensuring Malta would meet the Maastricht criteria for eurozone membership, the venture succeeded with flying colours.

This time around, however, it could be argued the move was little more than an electoral ploy. Yes, a Mepa reform was hammered out. But that is not quite enough when there are so many areas in which the country and its citizens are suffering – air and sea quality, a power station extension of dubious environmental merit and the black dust issue to name but a few. We could go on and on but a news page can only hold a certain number of words.

Concerned citizens, unprompted by political concerns and out of a genuine concern for the air that we breathe and the environment that surrounds us will send a clear message to the powers that be. We hope it will be heeded.