It would be funny were it not so deadly serious. Over the past few days, as Malta became the focus of international news media because of the events in Libya, many in the local media scene developed quite a creative streak.

It would have been rather entertaining, were it not that in this world of instant news, what appears on an obscure website here in Malta makes instant world news.

In the early days of the Libya saga, we had the sub-saga of the plane that was attempting to land in Malta. Up popped a news website which claimed the plane had Gaddafi’s daughter as a passenger. The plane was turned back, but the story went around the world. The government of Malta denied the story and Ms Gaddafi herself later appeared on Libya TV to deny the story in person.

Successively we had the story that one, no two, Libyan navy ships were approaching Malta. One version said the ship/s was/were defecting, while the other version was not sure of the ships’ intention. The government again denied this story, but not before it had gone round the world. Later on, those being stormy days, it turned out the ships could have been Italian fishing boats seeking shelter from the storm.

Then we had L-Orizzont claiming over successive days that Libya had sent an ultimatum to the government to send back the two planes that had been flown to Malta by two defecting pilots. The target audience in this case was the Maltese population and such stories could easily scare the population. Again, the government denied the story and nothing happened.

Last Saturday we had the SAS debacle in east Libya, which no paper carried on Sunday even if it had been all over the news in the early evening. But then on Monday, two papers claimed the SAS team had returned to Malta on the HMS Cumberland that docked on Sunday. They had not. PBS news, which checked the story, found the team was airlifted from the ship when still at sea.

Then there was the not insignificant story of the consignment of small arms and other weapons transshipped from Italy to Libya. Why the consignment needed to be transshipped is still not clear. Nor why a consignment regularly reported by Malta to the proper EU offices failed to ring any alarm bells, even when it later transpired that a clerical mistake had inflated the transshipment to ten times the real amount. But the damage was done: Malta had been portrayed all over the world’s media as having sold to Gaddafi the very same weapons now being used on protesters.

The latest spin to focus on Malta updated the humanitarian shelter that Malta provided through most of last week, as planes, ships and catamarans brought over people escaping from the Libyan inferno, and turned and twisted it to Malta becoming the hub of military preparedness in anticipation of what may come next – which may range from enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya to bombing Libyan airfields and military bases. This was also the gist of a television interview given by former premier Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici to an international TV network.

Now Malta is small and does not have any enclave where something like that could be hidden from view. Besides, there are military airfields nearby, at Sigonella in Sicily and at Akrotiri in Cyprus. The much-discussed AWACS fly from Sigonella, but in the context of today’s warfare they could fly in from anywhere. Besides, there are enough aircraft carriers etc around to fly them from. In other words, they do not need Malta. This was also confirmed by the words used by the US Ambassador to NATO, Ivo Daalder, who told an on-the-record press briefing that Malta would be the base for ‘the larger international co-ordinating process’ of on-going relief efforts in Libya.

This is what led Prime Minister Gonzi to stress on Monday that Malta had not contacted NATO at all, and that Malta’s role in the Libyan crisis continues to remain ‘purely humanitarian’.

Clearly, these are heady times for media people, especially with worldwide thirst for news focusing on or originating from Malta. But the media must learn to walk first and run later. It is definitely not in Malta’s interest that we become portrayed as being the springboard from where anti-Libya attacks will take off. It is not in Malta’s interest to take sides in the Libyan conflict, much though our sympathies lie with the downtrodden people who have been protesting. It is not in Malta’s interest to be portrayed, once again, as the bulwark of the West standing up to the Muslim East or South: Malta is now a haven of peace where peoples can meet and enjoy each other’s company, where people can live in mutual tolerance and where even the peoples of the South can find the freedom, tolerance and mutual respect that so often does not exist in their home countries.

Over the past few days, Malta’s name in the international media has first been praised sky-high for the efficient and safe way in which the exodus of people from Libya has been managed. Then the trigger-happy local media, immediately amplified and broadcast world-wide, tarnished the image somewhat when Malta risked being portrayed as a military base once again.

There is so much to be said for investigative journalism, but then again there is also so much to be said about checking stories before rushing to print or, as the case may be, rushing to air.

Just to round up everything, the other story that did damage Malta’s name were the words uttered by Commissioner John Dalli at a business breakfast last Friday. But then again, these fateful words probably damaged his reputation internationally even more than they damaged Malta’s name.