It is unbelievable how some people put their views across on sensitive subjects. Lou Bondì (The Sunday Times, March 14) seems to be one such person. First of all, it must be said that any violence, especially physical violence, is to be condemned unreservedly.
Mr Bondì is both a sociologist and a journalist, and while he enjoys the democratic right to express his opinion freely, when writing about the General Workers Union he very often resorts to the spin tactics that certain media is renowned for.
In his article, Mr Bondì said that he does "not condemn violence", and so he violently criticised L-Orizzont for not naming the individual who assaulted GRTU director-general Vince Farrugia. And to emphasise his point, as the PN spin doctors often do, Mr Bondì put the emphasis on L-Orizzont as the GWU's newspaper and as Tony Zarb's newspaper.
He even implied that L-Orizzont, using Soviet-style propaganda, tried to whip up a non-existent story as a diversion, and also went as far, again like the PN spin doctors, to assert that L-Orizzont is the Labour Party's daily.
Mr Bondì, conveniently perhaps, has forgotten that unlike the PN electronic, print, sound and vision media, L-Orizzont is open to different opinions on a range of subjects. On the contrary, nowhere and never does the GWU feature in the PN media, if not in purposely manipulated reports and articles that shed a bad light on the union. A bit of a research will show Mr Bondì if this is true or not.
Perhaps Mr Bondì is also unaware that L-Orizzont's editorial policy is that whoever commits a criminal offence is not mentioned by name until he or she is arraigned. This sensible policy strongly contrasts with what appears in the Nationalist media so much so that they did not hesitate to link the assault on Mr Farrugia with the mass protest of February 28 organised by the Għaqda Unions Maltin in Valletta.
To my knowledge, Mr Bondì did not criticise the PN media for this. Whether this is hypocrisy or not it is up to Mr Bondì to decide.
One other point, Mr Bondì is aware that Geitu Mercieca, the GWU's deputy secretary-general was physically attacked too.
Mr Bondì did not publicly condemn that attack nor did he write an article as he did in Mr Farrugia's case. But of course, Mr Mercieca neither was, nor is, a PN insider. And surely this is the two weights and two measures method Mr Bondì often practices in his writings and actions.