One News, One Productions, one-sided

Last Tuesday John Attard Montalto had to go to Smash TV to obtain some exposure in his campaign for the MLP leadership. His request to put his views across on the MLP's broadcasting media was refused because, according to the station authorities, he would otherwise have been given an unfair advantage over other potential candidates!

Of course, this is all a load of 'cattle excrement', to put it mildly. Super One's claim to be a paragon of 'fairness' is as sham as a slut being wheeled out of a plastic surgeon's operating theatre after having her virginity 'restored'.

Those of my age who recall the MLP's grip on the state broadcasting system in the late Seventies/early Eighties must be wincing at the stranglehold that a particular faction in the MLP now has on the party's media. Strangely enough - though not so strangely on second thoughts - this situation recalls the stranglehold that the MLP in government then had on the state media that at the time enjoyed a monopoly.

'One Productions' is certainly a one-sided concern!

It is obvious that what Dom Mintoff once described as 'the party's machinery' is completely in the hands of Emanuel Cuschieri and Co. - the faction that supports the present MLP leadership through thick and thin, come hell or high water. In the process, it blindly ignores the obvious message that the March referendum and the April general election should have clearly put across to any sensible MLP supporter.

When referring to Super One in his interview, Dr Attard Montalto said that the MLP's broadcasting media were preaching to the converted and were not reaching the wider audience without whose support the party can never win an election.

This is only one side of the coin. In actual fact, the MLP's broadcasting media do not just 'preach' to the party faithful. Super One broadcasting stations influence, lead and direct the party faithful in the interest of the faction that runs them and supports Alfred Sant. The way the party 'faithful' were shepherded on March 9 and enticed to take to the streets and celebrate the so-called victory of 'partnership' is only the more glaring example of its methods.

It is obvious that those who run the MLP broadcasting media are all out to retain the status quo in the leadership struggle - which also means retaining their jobs and sphere of influence. Dr Sant and the two deputy leaders are extolled. Those who dare criticise them for failing to deliver the much heralded MLP victory are denigrated in the name of party unity and loyalty - much as the state media were used in the Mintoff days to depict anybody disagreeing with the Government - particularly the PN - with that favourite epithet of totalitarian despots: 'enemy of the people'.

Dr Attard Montalto has found he had to go to a 'third party' broadcasting station to put his views across in much the same way that the Nationalist Party had to go to Sicily and broadcast from there when its voice on the state media was stifled.

Incidentally, the more enlightening piece in Dr Attard Montalto's interview was his statement that the first thing he would do as an MLP leader is to delve into the financial situation of the party - leading me to suspect that the efforts of the MLP's broadcasting media to retain the status quo might have some other hidden purpose behind them.

The liberalisation in broadcasting was intended to put an end to the state monopoly that had been repeatedly abused by the MLP in government as a means to stifle dissent. Incredibly, now that the Labour Party has its own broadcasting media, it repeatedly abuses it to stifle any dissenting voices within the party.

The struggle to rid Malta of the abhorrent methods of the 1971-87 MLP administrations was won against all odds and the broadcasting issue played a very important part in all that happened.

Will the abhorrent methods of the MLP's broadcasting media be overcome in the next few weeks? Even though the answer to this question is currently very hazy, it is the key without which the MLP will find it impossible to turn the tide against it.

In other words, if the MLP broadcasting media succeed in their desperate efforts to retain the status quo within the MLP, they would have probably also succeeded in retaining the MLP's status quo on a national level... and so prolonging the party's stretch in Opposition!

Such are the ironies of fate.