The gist of last week’s contribution in The Malta Independent on Sunday by Lou Bondi entitled “Handbag terrorism” was that, at least in Malta, one can only be a journalist if he does not have left-wing views or, God forbid, belong to a political party other than the Nationalist Party at which, he the great journalist, was, for some mesmerising years, responsible for its propaganda and information services.

One imagines this is the professional wisdom that he regularly imparts to his students at university.

He who writes authoritatively about events here when he was still in Canada trying to exorcise the Marxist inside him; he who quickly booked a plane back immediately after the 1987 change of government; he who has since been munching the doughnuts by as many mouths as possible; he who has always been willing to produce and present TV programmes explicitly meant to soothe the blues of his political friends and relatives; he, the great journalist, who recently produced and presented a programme on a hot issue involving the world of Internet blogs and, wonder of wonders, left out the protagonist; he who has never attended an IGM meeting but believes he has the right to dictate to it and cast random shadows on its democratically-elected council members... well, he simply chooses to do a bazooka act. No handbags for him.

If this is nurturing credibility, then Bondi deserves to refer to himself as a journalist and not a ‘journalist’.

Charles Flores

SLIEMA