State broadcaster PBS owes one massive apology to the whole of New Zealand after its leading talk show Xarabank on Friday night took the misjudged, misguided and wholly inappropriate decision to air footage from the New Zealand mosque massacre.
This comes after the Maltese Parliament held a minute of silence for the 50 Christchurch dead, when the Speaker of the House waxed lyrical about how regardless of the distance, Parliament pays its respect and shows its solidarity, and after both sides of the House paid respect and expressed condolences in the aftermath of the horrific shootings.
It also comes after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat himself spoke so forcefully against the atrocity and the reference to Malta’s Great Siege on one of the rifles.
We provide this context because it was not a private or a party-owned television station that aired clips of the shooting, it was the national broadcaster and all that goes with it.
We say this because it was the PBS that took such a decision right after Parliament had, rightly, expressed such sorrow over the attack.
We say this because in New Zealand, all footage of the attack has been banned, as it has been banned elsewhere far and wide.
It was Friday’s edition of Xarabank that took the appalling decision to air footage recorded by the attacker himself. The programme showed the monster driving in his car to the mosque and approaching it, and while it did not show any actual shooting, it even went as far as to show footage of worshipers in the mosque just before their lives were so mercilessly taken.
We see the ploy the programme has used here - just show a little of the footage, enough to garner ratings, but not enough to be accused of being gratuitous. Nice try, but this was a complete fail. The reason no one is showing the footage – apart from Xarabank, it seems – is not because of its graphic content, but so as to not glorify or publicise it in any way, shape or form.
One cares little for the reasons given before and after the footage was aired. That any of it was aired at all is a national insult to New Zealand, and to Malta.
Just imagine if this atrocity had taken place in the town here in Malta in which you, dear reader, live. Transpose that situation to a church in Paola, Sliema or Valletta for a moment.
Could you imagine, want or justify images of John and Mary just before their slaughter in their place of worship being screened? No, we didn’t think so.
That fact that we are so many times zones and thousands of kilometres removed from New Zealand does not make it any better or any more acceptable.
Shame on you, Xarabank and shame on PBS’ editorial board, which was either not informed of the decision to air such controversial footage, which has been banned far and wide, or it was informed and condoned that decision.
Which one was it? An explanation is demanded.
We have backed this particular programme and its editorial decisions on numerous occasions, but not this time around, we are sorry to say. This time, the envelope has been pushed too far, and no amount of debate, supposed justifications or excuses will make the grade this time around.
New Zealand has entered into a diplomatic dispute with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his showing of the footage at campaign rallies, it has been banned in New Zealand, where the attacker’s name is not even being mentioned, it is being banned by internet service providers around the world and yet Malta’s state broadcaster thought it was acceptable to air it, just in case there was anyone out there who had not been treated to the footage.
The programme, and PBS by default, made a grievous error in judgement here and we are not sure any apology will cut it.
A wayward decision by one television programme or another is one thing, but when it was done on the state broadcaster after Parliament reacted the way in which it did, and with the tacit or complicit approval of the its editorial board, it is nothing short of a national insult to and an insult to New Zealand.