Is ONE strategically moving away from partisan talk?, LovinMalta's Tim Diacono asked. "ONE TV seems to have embarked on a new strategy, shifting its focus away from partisan talk," Diacono commented. To prove his point he presented Karl Stagno Navarra's axing. He noted that "no current politicians" had taken part in "Bil-Fatti", the new programme that replaced Stagno Navarra's Pjazza. "This wasn't just Pjazza with a different name and hosts - it's a radically different kind of show," he announced. "Politicians were also absent from yesterday's show," Diacono pointed out.
Well, that didn't last. On the same day that Diacono published his article, Robert Abela walked onto the new show. "Bil-Fatti" host Claudia Cuschieri welcomed the Prime Minister and party leader. Diacono's vision of a ONE show without politicians was dashed.
As to whether ONE is moving away from partisan talk, Robert Abela quickly dispelled all doubt. He spent his entire time in an interminable partisan rant.
He savagely attacked former PN MP Jason Azzopardi - "the people have already expressed their judgement about this person and now even the court has". He condemned Azzopardi for his "serious abuse". He claimed Azzopardi's behaviour was "extremely grave". He riled his party base lamenting that the court's decision finding Azzopardi's comments about Carmelo Abela libellous and the 7000 euro fined was inadequate. "It's true that you can go to the courts...but the whole damage to your reputation, psychological, the shame... the harm caused to one's political career".
What is Robert Abela suggesting when he insists the court's decision won't repair the harm done to Carmelo Abela? What's his message to his blindly loyal supporters?
Abela then turned his guns onto the Opposition accusing it of making false allegations about the death of Stephen Mangion. He told his audience that the Opposition was attacking medical professionals to try and destroy them to gain political advantage. "Political abuse," he ranted.
Tim Diacono can rest assured ONE is still partisan. And the only reason ministers Michael Falzon and Jonathan Attard hadn't been invited was simply to let the leader get all the adulation. There is no change in strategy at ONE.
There was far worse from Abela. "We need to see how we let people express themselves freely but the boundaries of decency must not be exceeded," Claudia Cuschieri commented. Labour lets people express themselves freely but only if they're decent. That's bad enough. But then Abela waded in.
"Freedom of expression is a very dear right for us.....BUT....." You know what's coming next. It sounds like: "I'm not racist but..." Abela didn't disappoint. His authoritarian streak was on full display.
"Every right brings with it a duty," he preached, "and that duty is respect - how to use that right while respecting others".
Abela believes free speech should only be allowed as long as it's respectful, towards him. And of course he'll decide what's respectful and what isn't. That's not free speech, that's autocratic repression.
Abela claims freedom of expression is close to his heart - but his concept of that right is as distorted as the truth in the hands of his party station. Abela demands respect yet he's been unforgiving in his public attacks on journalists whom he labelled "part of the establishment" and "ultra-cruel". He's been vicious in his unfair attacks on members of the judiciary. He's been heartless in accusing Jean Paul Sofia's mother of allowing herself to be used. He's been vile in his insensitive attacks on Daphne Caruana Galizia's children claiming they're not interested in finding out who killed their mother. He allows his party station to relentlessly harass and persecute critics, inciting their audience by publishing images and film footage of critics and their family.
Abela isn't interested in fostering respectful debate and a healthy political environment. If he were, he'd kick out not just Stagno Navarra but the entire newsroom at his party station. What Abela's really after is finding excuses for stifling critics.
He's attempting to curb the fundamental right to freedom of expression. He's spreading the idea that people and groups have a sacrosanct right not to be offended and to be respected. This may seem innocuous. Politeness and civility are virtues after all. But if Abela demands the right to be respected that means someone must police what anybody says about him or about the things he holds dear - his government, his party, his political views.
But disrespect is subjective. Abela expects he'll be the one to police it; he gets to decide what constitutes disrespect and what should be allowed.
Even despots know that locking up mouthy journalists is disreputable. But that's exactly what Labour's outgoing President Ramona Attard has just proposed - the criminalisation of libel. And Robert Abela didn't disagree with her. Authoritarians are constantly looking out for respectable sounding excuses to trample on the right to free speech - Abela is no different.
He's using "respect" or the lack of it as a convenient excuse for silencing critical voices. Claudia Cuschieri wants freedom of expression to be allowed only within the limits of "decency".
Hard truths, labelled "offensive", "disrespectul" or "indecent", must not be censored. If we allow that to happen we'll be helping Labour justify their plan for harsher restrictions of the fundamental right to freedom of expression, to justify imprisoning those found guilty of libel. What will Labour do next? Introduce blasphemy legislation banning insults against the party leader?
It is deeply disconcerting that in the country that witnessed the ultimate silencing of free speech in the brutal assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, support for freedom of expression is lukewarm, at best. Labour supporters who find words critical of government upsetting, demand that the government, the minister or the Prime-minister should shut up those critics.
It's worth spelling out why free speech is the bedrock of all freedoms. It's the best defence against bad government. Politicians who err should be subjected to unfettered criticism, no matter how thin their skin is. Robert Abela should be no different.