So Minister Joe Mizzi, whose fuse is not noticeably long, upped and left a press conference because of persistent questioning by a Net News reporter who would not take No for an answer and would not shut up.

Here we go again: it means the political summer is over.

The boot is now on the other foot and while one would agree such shenanigans should not take place, not even at ministerial press conferences, we have been here before, haven’t we?

One does not need to have a very long memory to remember scenes of One News reporters hounding Lawrence Gonzi wherever he went. Once the cameraman even attempted to enter the same lift that the prime minister was going in.

Inevitably, such behavior has, as the Italians say, ‘ha fatto scuola’.

It was very fitting then that Minister Mizzi became the butt of this verbal onslaught for his way of replying, both in Parliament and out of it, leave much to be desired. He immediately goes on the attack and while taking up a lot of time, attacks the Opposition for real or perceived misdeeds in the past and many times does not get around to answer the question that is put. 

And that’s in Parliament where the questioning is far more civil than that exhibited by the New News journalist.

In an ideal world, press conferences should be informative and held in a peaceful environment.

Instead, over the past years, speakers from all sides have taken to hold press conferences at the most uncomfortable places, where the journalists have to stand, instead of sitting and writing, many times surrounded by the din of the street or square where the press conference is being held.

Ideally, the journalists should be presented with a summarized statement prepared beforehand. And ideally too, the journalists should follow what is being said instead of waiting till the conference is over and then rush the speaker with microphones in his face. And ideally too, reporters should report what was said instead of taking one slip from all that is said and harnessing it to a political agenda.

Of course, all this has amounted to a degeneration of public affairs in our country where entrapment has become the preferred tool and where the various news outlets give their own spin to anything and everything. The ultimate result is that the public rarely gets a chance to understand what is being said and done.

And, as can be seen from this sorry episode, no one remembers what Minister Mizzi was announcing but everyone remembers he was so riled by the persistent Net reporter he upped and left.

It’s like the story about the priest delivering a sermon which no one remembered later but everyone remembered that a dog entered and bit the priest.

The losers in such a situation are everyone: the speaker, the reporter and the audience.

As said earlier, this new Nationalist mode of ‘reporting’ takes its precedent from what the Labour reporters used to do. In the interest of all, there must be an end to this harassment on one side and to blustering repartee from the other.

After all, not all ministers have such a short fuse as Mr Mizzi and not all reporters are as keen to trip up a minister as that Net reporter.