Parallel lives

Pollyanna, the poster-girl for unrealistically optimistic persons, would have been impressed.

As I walked up Guardamangia Hill the other day, I saw two bricklayers fixing the boundary wall between the driveway of Public Broadcasting Services and the adjacent plot used as a car park. Could this mean that the restructuring exercise has gone on so well on the 'inside' that the aftermath has oozed to the 'outside'?

Alas, as people never fail to point out, I am not Pollyanna, and so I think not. However, this is not necessarily the fault of the people who have been entrusted with seeing the station of the nation. Not unless certain things that affect them, and other stations, are rectified first.

Adbusters, who describe themselves as 'a global network of culture-jammers and creative people who are working to change the way information flows and meaning is produced in our society', was founded in 1989 after Canadian corporate broadcasters refused to sell us airtime for our citizen-produced TV spots.

Their point of view is that Canadians should be able to walk into their local TV stations and buy 30 seconds of airtime under the same rules and conditions as corporations do, because citizens must have the right to communicate.

In Malta, the problem is totally different. When it comes to advertising, the Broadcasting Authority is like a football referee in the penalty area, holding a stopwatch. If the player (a radio or television station) takes one second longer to kick the ball (take an advertisement off air) than is allowed by law, he gets slapped with a fine. This exercise is as tedious as it is anachronistic and melodramatic.

I, for one, would rather see more quality programming and less reports of repeats. I would also prefer to be greeted by people who know what they are doing when they are on TV.

If push came to shove, I could also complain about advertising for Oxo cubes that 'are so delicious on a roast', still being broadcast in this weather.

But instead, I will just suggest that at times, the whole caboodle that is local broadcasting veers lopsidedly between Chris Rock's portrayal of an easily-manipulated Washington alderman running for President in Head of State, and the presidential wannabe Barack Obama appearing to walk on water as he addressed the German crowds.

The Broadcasting Authority has issued two documents pertaining to subliminal advertising and allied arguments. The tone of these documents is overtly paternalistic and there is no margin of tolerance for self-regulation. This is why certain people, perhaps, try to test the limits. It is a vicious cycle that is perpetuated when people feel they are not trusted enough.

I find it ridiculous that presenters, who have their own backing sponsors, advertise the wares or services of these sponsors while at the same time casually informing us that they will be present at this venue on that night in connection with another event. And yet this is still allowed to happen. I also have a distaste for 'professionals' who answer calls on air and then intimate that a caller with a problem must, as soon as possible, refer to 'someone who is knowledgeable in the field', but privately meaning themselves.

What are the monitors doing? Do they not realise that this, too, is a form of subliminal advertising? Everyone recognises a Coca Cola bottle and a tube of UHU glue, even when they are covered with paper for use during craft sessions, so I would think that blatant self-promotion is similarly obvious. The monitors are also too keen to jump upon a statement that could be construed to have political undertones.

There is often no leeway given to freedom of expression unless a person from a diametrically opposite point of view is present during the same programme and is given an equal amount of airtime.

Is this denial of autonomy, perhaps, a part of the syndrome that makes some presenters move from one station to another? If we want to boast that Malta's broadcasting law is akin to international praxis, then we must go the whole hog.

Advertising is the lifeblood of broadcasting; any station that does not rake in the money from television licences needs the former to stay on air. However, obligations towards viewers and listeners go way further than providing them with time meticulously divided between programming and advertorials.

The other day, callers to Radju Malta appeared perturbed that 'erotic' literature was being read out at a time when children could be listening.

Frankly, I found the language used in the novella under scrutiny, hilarious rather than titillating. Besides, I wonder how many children do listen to the rumanzi. I am more concerned about DJs who think it's cool to play Sex on the Beach and similar records because music is more attractive to kids than reading, especially in the early afternoons.

television@timesofmalta.com