Board walks

Truth is stranger than fiction. And more deadly serious.

The international press has reported that Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Board has ordered a television station to apologise for invading the privacy of an Ottoman Sultan; specifically, Sulei­man the Magnificent. I kid you not.

Scenes from his harem were shown, and to the board this meant they did not show the sensitivity due to such a historical figure.

This watchdog has no power to prohibit programmes from being broadcast, but it has the power to stop a programme, while it is on air, up to 12 times. Just for the record, the board received tens of thousands of complaints.

To think that a shoe-throwing incident caused such a ruckus in the local media.

The media on the media is always a fun thing to watch, read or listen to. Saturday last’s Għandi Xi Ngħid was one of the best so far – replete as it was with banter from some of the best-loved media personalities (including Chief, whose lavatorial humour was inadvertently indicative of the state of certain sections of the Maltese media).

Not many people know that Joe Tanti began his media life as an international law student and journalist before becoming the popular presenter he is today. Or that Pablo Micallef’s innovative mejda tal-qubbajd beginnings on One Television have made him what he is today.

Or that Josef Bonello dates back to Max Plus; when, fortunately, Claudette Pace and Ray Calleja recognised his talent.

It is important to note that the media in Malta is just as full of self-styled demi-gods. Some of us cannot take a joke; some of us think that, having qualified in our profession, we are capable of teaching others what we have yet to learn.

To earn the title of broadcaster, one needs to strive for perfection. This in not peer mentoring; this is conceit.

One of the pertinent questions Andrew Azzopardi asked his first lot of guests was whether they feared losing their popularity.

Bonello spoke for us all when he said that a nick in the public’s esteem would reflect upon the whole team – be it art of a television or radio station or a print publication.

There was a time when the state broadcaster was a closed shop. People with talent longed for an opportunity to show what they were worth.

With liberalisation, the pendulum has swung to the other side. All too often, incompetence rules the roost.

Inevitably, one call was about the misuse of the vernacular on local media, which compounds the problems. It is to enough to boast that you have gone on scholarships, or been trained by the BBC.

If you rely on your looks, or what your guests come up with, rather than making a programme plan, you are bound to fail.

Another call spoke about the ‘cut-and-paste’ Google Translate news bulletins that are offered on PBS. There is a deeper problem. Bulletins remain the same, save for minor alterations, from the first one broadcast to the last. Why bother with newscasters when a cassette tape would do?

The second lot of guests was Ronald Briffa, Carlo Borg Bonaci, Jean Claude Micallef and Stephanie Spiteri, making the second part of the programme less erudite and livelier, thus highlighting the different sides that are Maltese radio and television.

Briffa started off in the children’s television programme realm. Borg Bonaci began on Radio Malta. Spiteri finds that radio has no appeal for her. Micallef prefers television too, and confirms that radio is a totally different medium.

Spiteri lives within an English-speaking environment, so she argues it is easy for English expressions to sneak into her speech.

Programmes like Modern Life­styles do nothing for the language. If that is what passes on state broadcasting, what could we expect from people who jump into broadcasting because “they always wanted to be on television”?

Everyone has his own idea of what makes a broadcaster successful. The medium is not the message – the messenger is. When you find yourself reaching out for the television remote control, or the radio knob, the chances are that it’s the presenter, and not the content, that have irked you.

Broadcasters are our role models. Sometimes, the distinctions bet­ween public and private life tend to blur. You cannot expect people to realise that at a private function, you need privacy; and yet, if you give them the cold shoulder, you risk becoming a fallen idol.

This feeling is also strengthened by the fact that presenters channel-hop and often enough take their audience with them.

Should presenters blend, chameleon-like, into the station identity, or should they remain themselves wherever they are?

The question remains about whether presenters are born or made. Do years spent at a console make one a disc-jockey? Are all veteran broadcasters ‘good’, or are some kept on because they are able to ladle in the advertising revenue for their station?

It is a Maltese idiosyncrasy that some presenters have landed their job because they were in the right place at the right time. That is why it would be unfair to judge people on how they appear on camera.

It is a pity none of the old-timers of Rediffusion and Television Malta were invited; but I am told this is in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, we note that Parliament has begun discussing the law on consumer rights. Maybe if they put this discussion on the fast track, they will beat the imminent deadline of the tenders for the next three years’ broadcasting of the Champions League games.

television@timesofmalta.com