Matthew Borg, Siġġiewi
TV station running out of local news items
I was startled last Sunday when I tuned in to the eight o'clock news on one of the main local TV stations. Out of a 30-minute news bulletin, only three news items were locally related.
Ok, we do want to keep ourselves up to date with what's happening in Gaza and what Barack Obama is up to, but we do not want to indulge in so much foreign news substance!
It is such a pleasure to watch the Italian news as it is full of features, news and gossip.
Maybe we can't see too much gossip on our news as Malta is too humble for certain issues to go public. Perhaps there were no newsworthy events as nothing intriguing happened during the day, but journalists, instead of using the "cut and paste" method to feed us what we can see on other foreign channels, can do some work and feature some news value issues. Illegal immigration, hunting, theft, poverty, bills, childcare, roads, weather, property, institutions, pollution... I can go on forever. Please, hit the spot!
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Giovann DeMartino
Jan 9th 2009, 16:56
Here is the headline news: an angry crowd broke into the PN club in Floriana and set it on fir; some 50 angry nationalists enmtered the house of the leader of the opposition assaulted hius family and destroyed everything in sight. In the meantime another crowd is making sure that the Times would not be issued tomorrow. In the meantime the aristocracy of the workers went to the Curia to pray. Some unknown hot head has fired a shot at the Tarxien PN Club. Lucklily the murderer of Ray Caruana has been caught. He comes from Safi and he is a nationalist activist. I have to stop now because another crowd of angry people are heading for this TV station....more news tomorrow. Perhaps.
lgalea
Jan 8th 2009, 19:56
Berthrand Pisani
If you want to watch them get an aerial.
It's one of those thing you put on the roof.
Giov.DeMartino
Jan 8th 2009, 17:46
Our TV stations are running out of local news for the simple reason that no news is good news!
Natalino Fenech Editor TVM
Jan 8th 2009, 16:17
The news on the day had features about Gaza, but none about Obama. We also had stories about the hold up at Marsascala, local features about developments in the second hand car market and Maltese chapels, apart from a human interest foreign story about child slavery.
There was no other local news on the day, that is why our newsroom strove to get its own stories, as we do everyday. Statistics over the past four months show that TVM news bulletins had less politics and more off diary stories. Viewers are appreciating this as the 8 pm news bulletin has doubled its audiences and latest surveys have shown it is seen by up to 121,000 a day. Our journalists have also won awards for the best use of Maltese.
The situation in Gaza merited top of the list of the news on the day. Incidentally, The Times on the following day also started with the Gaza issue on the front page and covered some of the other stores covered by TVM.
Issues such as illegal immigration, hunting, utility bills, weather, property, pollution etc, have all featured in recent bulletins, some before Sunday and some after.
Lawrence Mifsud
Jan 8th 2009, 15:26
In my opinion the news bulletins represent the situation in Hell (Super one), Heaven (Net TV) and Purgatory (TVM).
In order to know what the PN are doing, watch Super One; and to know what the red boys are doing, watch Net Tv.....
By the way, they agree on one thing: butchering the Maltese Language.
Berthrand Pisani
Jan 8th 2009, 13:51
I cannot view the local TV stations because they are encrypted on Digital Terretial transmissions.
Looks like I'm not missing much as Mr/Ms A Saliba rightly put it in comments below. Well said.
c.t. busuttil
Jan 8th 2009, 13:19
Investigative journalism takes time and money. Advertisers who pay for peak time viewing should insist on quality news.
A. Saliba
Jan 8th 2009, 13:08
Maltese news programs are the most boring things on television. I would rather watch paint dry.
Here's what a typical news program looks like:
Newscaster reads the news in a refrigerator-cold monotone voice. Cut to a horribly edited amauterly-filmed montage voiceovered (yes, I know the verb doesn't exist) by an equally boring narrator. Repeat for all news items.
I would rather watch the Studio Aperto news bulletin, even though the news items are of little relevance to me, but at least it's entertaining.
Thank god we have the online version of The Times keeping us updated 24/7. No need to tune in for the tv news anymore.
Gerard Cassar
Jan 8th 2009, 12:04
or perhaps some interesting news would throw a bad light on the P.N. government so they are avoided.
Jimmy Magro
Jan 8th 2009, 11:30
A news bullettin should be about news. Factual and real.
The news bullettin cannot be fixed in time - always 30 minutes as this makes the bullettin irrational in the sens that if there is no news then is bad luck cut it short to report only the news and vice versa
The Italian news bullettins are more of a story teller
The Broadcasting Authority should update its manual on the matter to ensure that news are read out without comment and bias.
Ramon Casha
Jan 8th 2009, 10:27
Are you joking? In Malta, events do not get reported unless a minister has been invited to attend - and even then it depends which minister. Local news in Malta is nothing more than a series of photo ops.
Adrian Sciberras
Jan 8th 2009, 10:11
I dont watch political stations because one say we're in heaven one earth, and the other says we are close to the apocalypse.
On the "neutral" TV stations I must admit that they have improved a lot the quality over the past 5 years, however they lack features like Studio Aperto, e.g. first 20mins news from Italy & abraod and the last 10mins is exactly as Mr Borg says... features, gossip on celebrities etc...
So I say well spotted Mr Borg. And hope local stations notice this letter and improve their output.
PAUL BUSUTTIL
Jan 8th 2009, 10:09
MAY BE OUR JOURNALISTS ARE AFRAID OF MALTAES POLITICS AND REPERCUSSIONS.