The Department of Information is the government’s communications arm, with a duty to “provide the public with up-to-date, comprehensive, and meaningful information on government policies, services and activities, as well as on matters of public interest, and to promote a proper image of the public service and the country”.

This is what the DOI says it does on its website homepage and, to a large extent, it fulfils its duties diligently, responsibly and efficiently. Naturally, it outs everything the government does in good light, and goes on the defence when the government is being criticised.

The DOI is the link between the various ministries and parliamentary secretaries, each with their own communications team, and the media in general.

In a way, the DOI is as efficient as the individual communications teams of each of the 19 ministers (including OPM) and eight parliamentary secretaries. If they are late, then the DOI is late. If they communicate in Maltese only, then the DOI communicates in Maltese only. If they do so in both Maltese and English (which helps the English-speaking media tremendously), then the DOI’s press releases are in both languages.

Each of these communications teams has the interest to promote their minister or parliamentary secretary in the best way possible. Many times, the focus is not the event itself, but the minister. It is not the activity, but what the minister says which is important for these teams. The press releases are often just propaganda for the minister, rather than a way to inform the public of what is going on.  There are press releases in which the minister, or the minister’s name, is mentioned in each paragraph.

Some would argue that these teams, and therefore the DOI, are just doing their job. Probably they are following the minister’s instructions when they mention him or her so many times. Some ministers love seeing their name in the media, and we tend to receive many more press statements with their quotes and activities than we do of others. Of course, not every press release received merits news coverage.

Most press releases are accompanied by photos and, inevitably, there is one or more of the minister concerned. We understand that these are picked by the communications teams from the tens of shots taken, showing the minister in the best possible pose.

We do cringe however when the list of photos that we are provided do not include a selection related to the activity or event. We give one example of this – there are many, but we choose it because it is the most recent.

On 12 January, the government held a ceremony to mark the re-opening of the Grand Master’s Palace after a €40 million restoration programme. The media received five photos: one of President George Vella, one of Prime Minister Robert Abela, one of Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne, one one of Culture Minister Owen Bonnici, and one of them all together with their partners. Except for Abela’s, they were all close-ups and could have been taken anywhere. There was no hint that they were taken at the palace.

No photos of the palace, of the armoury, of the many other areas that were restored.  No photos at all. If anything, the DOI (or shall we say the respective teams of the politicians?), apart from the photos of the politicians (although we all know what they look like), should have provided the media with an array of photos of the areas that were restored.

After all, more than half of the €40 million that was spent on the restoration came from taxpayers’ money

Or is it too much to ask for?