Clash barriers

I found a couple of posters advertising Lenten pageants particularly weird. One of them portrayed the actor playing Jesus with a couple of sticking plasters placed crosswise over his lips; the other had another actor, photographed from behind, with a cross superimposed on his back such that it looked like a Nazi tattoo.

The Good Friday afternoon production on One Television could best be described as a cheap imitation of Jesus Christ, Superstar, with bells on. But, just for the nonce, I will bite my tongue, because there are more important issues about which to comment.

This week, the media circuits are ablaze with the 'fact' that 'finally' Lou Bondí 'is going to be taken to court for defying the Broadcasting Authority'. At least that is how some of the e-mails I received put it - apart from 'daring' me to 'say something about it'.

The crux of the story is that after Bondi+Borg-PL, the Broadcasting Authority put its dentures in and decided that the particular episode was blatantly biased in favour of the government - since there were no spokesmen for the opposition (in the sense of nay-sayers, not Labour people, which could have been tantamount to the same thing, but for the sake of clarity I am differentiating between them).

Somehow, the Broadcasting Authority arrived at the conclusion that the programme breached Article 13(2) (f) of the Broadcasting Act. This article speaks about the impartiality that must be kept in all matters of political, public policy, or industrial controversy, especially in public broadcasting.

Did the BA have the right to make Bondí grant a right-of-reply to anyone who wanted to give the lie to Tonio Borg? Will Bondí go to the European Court over this, and ask it to declare the Malta Broadcasting Authority well past its expiry date, and ask for it to be dissolved? Some of us are already thinking this is what must happen anyway, since television stations are supposed to be self-regulating (and I have no doubt they monitor one another's transmissions like hawks).

Inevitably, Bondí bristled and sent one of his usual round-robin press releases to all of us.

Asked to clarify further, he said: "There is practically nothing to add (except that) they have invented a new rule of journalism. If you state a fact (not an opinion) you have to balance it somehow or other with what the other side has to say. So if I - or you - say that the government has built three schools I have to look for what the PL has to say about them before I publish it".

Prof. Joseph Pirotta's take on the matter was that "recent dubious decisions by the Broadcasting Authority have strengthened the perception at PBS that the station is being singled out for over-regulation by the Broadcasting Authority, possibly in an attempt to deflect political pressure from itself. Whether this observation is correct or not will emerge from the way the Broadcasting Authority treats, or mistreats the station, in the immediate future."

I am under the impression that there is some kind of roster at the Broadcasting Authority, where different officers are supposed to be monitoring different media at different times - such that the same person does not get to watch or listen to the same programmes on a regular basis.

As such, it could be a question of a person's point of view that makes a programme acceptable, and another deserving of a fine.

Last Wednesday, the topic under discussion on Radju Malta's Familja Waħda between Lilian Maistre and her guest Mgr Louis Camilleri was another hot topic: the issue of abuse of children by priests.

It seems people still cannot discern between pederasty, paedophilia and homosexuality - as is evidenced by the misinformation bandied about by people who think they know it all.

But what struck me is that just before the close of the discussion, a caller reminded us that Joe Tanti always tells us to "take care of those children, whoever they are, whose ever they are, wherever they are".

Knowing that Tanti has worked tirelessly over the years for the rights of children I caught up with him and asked him for a brief explanation of what he means when he leaves us with his Thought For The Day.

He said: "It all began around 1992, when I worked at Bay Radio. I decided to ask my listeners to donate toys for children at Karen Grech Disney Ward, over Christmastide, whether for abuse or illness. The result was three vanloads of toys; indeed we had enough for all the children in hospital and a good number for children in residential homes all over the island.

"But the most important thing that came out of it was 179. I wanted to create a 'blue line'. Michael Frendo was very interested, and we contacted Sicily to see how their 'blue line' operated. During the press conference at Karen Grech Hospital, I asked (then Parliamentary Secretary) Dolores Cristina point blank whether the government intended to help, but she was not the one who had the final word. The rest of 179 is history.

"One sad episode sticks to mind; it happened about six months after the launch of 179. An English woman in her 60s came up to me, asking after the son of her neighbour in England some years back, who was in hospital for sexual abuse by his father. We traced the boy's uncle and were told the boy was dead. He had testified against his father, who had been sent to jail. As soon as he got out, he went to his son's school - and shot him dead.

"That is why I say that sentence at the end of every programme."

television@timesofmalta.com