Journalists’ institute condemns bus driver’s behaviour

The Institute of Maltese Journalists yesterday condemned the assault on a photographer of The Times by an Arriva bus driver earlier this week.

It noted that no police were present when the incident occurred on Tuesday. The photographer had been standing at bay 15 photographing commuters boarding a bus on the driver’s side. Suddenly, the driver turned round and stuck his tongue out at the photo­grapher.

In the next instant, the driver stuck out his hand, grabbed the camera – which was strapped to the photographer’s neck – from the lens and shoved it in the photographer’s face.

He then proceeded to threaten the photographer loudly: “You don’t take any photos of me. I will alight and gouge your eyes out.” He got off his seat but could not leave the bus because commuters were blocking his exit. An Arriva representative called The Times later to apologise but no replies to questions on whether disciplinary action had been taken were forth­coming.

The institute said the new bus drivers were emulating the behaviour of their colleagues who operated the old public transport system in their attitude towards journalists and photo­graphers.

It appealed to Arriva to train drivers on how to deal with journalists and photographers while on duty.