Style sheets

"She... had worked on the fringes of enough newsrooms to know the processes by which balance was evolved: the half-accidental, half-purposeful ways in which bias was created, and truth once again slipped through the fingers and scattered, like a drop of mercury splashing on the floor, elusive in the first place, now gone forever..."

This quote comes from Fay Weldon's The President's Child.

These days, however, one does not need to be accredited to any news agency or department, or any local or foreign organisation, to self-style himself as a journalist. Reading the news on television, or even having a letter published in a newspaper, apparently qualifies one for the title. Let us not, for the moment, mention other roads to qualify as a journalist.

However, the bit about partiality and prejudice holds as true as ever.

Last Sunday, for instance, one had only to see how the coverage of Joseph Muscat being interviewed by John Bundy was conducted on One Television and Net Television. The latter station was very sparing with its shots of Mr Bundy, unlike the former.

Both stations went through the interview with a fine-tooth comb; not only with regards to what Dr Muscat said, but also what Mr Bundy asked. It was clear to anyone with more than a handful of brain cells that both were occasionally playing to the gallery.

This, I warrant, shall not be the last we see of this type of bantering encounter.

The 'fact' that everyone is a journalist means that both the vernacular and English are going to the dogs because the people who seek to use them insist that the 'spoken' word is what the people need and want to hear, so that they can comprehend what is being said. Otherwise - and I quote verbatim - "it will go over their heads and anqas ħaqq ix-xogħol li jkunu ħadu l-ġurnalisti." Indeed, this hybrid type of language proves my point.

And here comes the 2009 European Young Journalist Award. The contest is open to young European 'aspiring and established' print, online and radio journalists, students and freelancers, aged 17 to 35.

The idea is for them to 'reflect and share their views on the European Union and EU enlargement'.

Assessment of submissions will be made in June by national juries made up of leading media professionals and a representative from the European Commission.

For more information, go to www.eujournalist-ward.eu.

• Calypso television was launched last Sunday at 4 p.m. Yet people who only have basic services, and those who have switched to Melita, are unable to receive it, more's the pity. From the little I have seen, I can say there is great professionalism, imbued with refreshing elements.

After Archbishop Paul Cremona blessed the premises there followed a three-hour inaugural programme presented by Twanny Scerri and Angela Agius, who later interviewed Mgr Cremona.

Scream Daisy provided live entertainment. Station directors Frank Camilleri and Alfred Cacciatolo reiterated that although Calypso Music TV would be rooted in music, there would soon be other types of programmes on air.

The fresh Calypso Breakfast Show airs from 8 to 11 a.m., and is presented by the charming Eleanor Cassar and Twanny Scerri.

• It is sufficiently different from Cluedo to enable it to stand on its own; but the Min Qatel? edition of Xarabank had enough elements of the original to remind me of it.

The premise is that someone was murdered, and the people comprising 'professional' and 'populist' panels - and a studio audience made up of young (at heart!) people - were supposed to guess whodunit.

In episodes from series such as Murder, She Wrote, which do not rely on audience participation, the mystery is solved within the arc of the programme. Here, the feature perforce had to be dissected into bits and pieces, so that comments could be made by those invited. Despite the cliffhanger, chances are that people were irritated at this.

Station logos are supposed to appear at all times on screen, at least during local productions. Here, this meant that during the pseudo-newsflash, the TVM logo was clearly visible (albeit at the top, right-hand corner of the screen), which could have been misconstrued to mean that the newscast was a PBS one.

I do not want to jump the gun and give my own conclusions - but it seems to me that one of the women is highly delusional, and that the flashbacks that feature her might just be figments of her own imagination.

Time will tell; because I might be disappointed again, as I was with the programme about the Simshar tragedy. No one bothered to inform us whether there were any children on board, any florescent vests in the seamen's garages, whether there are rules governing the wearing of such clothing, and indeed, whether the people involved in the accident could all swim.

• I am pleased to note that Malta Ġrajjietha, the award-winning TVM documentarty, is being broadcast on Melbourne's Community Channel 31. The series was written by John Inguanez, produced by CVC Communications and presented by Joe Dimech.

The series won the Best Documentary Award at the Samsung Malta Television Awards (November 2008), and recently placed fourth in the Broadcasting Authority ratings.

television@timesofmalta.com