On October 12, 1983, Archbishop Ġużeppi Mercieca filed a constitutional case against the Government of Malta asking the court to declare that the Devolution Act and other legislation aimed at the de facto confiscation of Church property constitute a violation of the Constitution and of human rights. The bishops had said that the law “would adversely affect the existence of the Church in our country”.
A few days before the court case was presented, a meeting was held at the Curia to discuss the best way to present this decision to the public, given that it was the first time that a Maltese archbishop had filed a constitutional case against a prime minister.
Someone suggested that the bishops should release a statement that would then be read in churches on Sunday. Mercieca immediately shot down the suggestion. He said that he could foresee the possibility that there would be people of goodwill who would not agree with his decision. Consequently, Mercieca preferred to leave the celebration of Mass free from such controversies. He went out of his way to prevent the situation developing into a politico-religious conflict worse than the 1960s.
I remembered this anecdote while reading the biography of the Archbishop Emeritus, penned by Charles Buttigieg and published by Klabb Kotba Maltin.
Reading the biography triggered so many memories. There were some details of which I was not aware. A number of incidents and positions are amply explained while others cry for more details.
Take for example Dom Mintoff’s November 1981 meeting with Pope John Paul II. It is done and dusted in two sentences. There is, however, an interesting story to tell which is of relevance even today.
On the eve of Mintoff’s meeting with the Pope, a meeting was held at the Nunciature. Mgr Beniamino Stella, the chargé d’affaires, since the Nuncio had been sent away from Malta by Mintoff from 1978-1983, assured us that the Pope was going to deliver a very strong speech criticising the policy of the Labour government and defending the local Church.
One of the monsignors suggested that we wait for the Italian edition of L’Osservatore Romano to reach Malta (roughly about three days after the meeting) and then publish the whole speech in Malta, given that the government would have only released what it wanted to release.
It was agreed that this was not acceptable. The speech had to be released as soon as possible after the Pope made it. I contacted a Maltese priest studying in Rome who agreed to telex it to a friend of mine in Malta. Mgr Joseph Lupi translated it into Maltese and English and by late afternoon it was distributed to the media.
Out of a three-page speech, Xandir Malta only reported three lines while leaving out a key phrase from those three lines. The State radio and TV station said nothing of the Pope’s criticism of, among other things, the government’s decision to refuse the Bishops permission to visit schools and the prisons, to build new churches and the Pope’s staunch support for the Maltese bishops.
The reportage of the Pope’s speech and the coverage of other aspects of Mintoff’s visit were a textbook example of media manipulation orchestrated by the Office of the Prime Minister.
The Curia then decided to try to remedy the situation by buying a four-page supplement in Times of Malta. It featured several photos of the Pope meeting the Maltese bishops as well as the entire text of the speech of the Pope.
(In parenthesis one notes that in the 1980s, the Church’s media outlets were limited to a daily newspaper and a weekly one albeit both with a limited circulation. Broadcasting was totally State controlled. Mercieca recognised this restriction in the Church’s ability to communicate. After deciding to terminate the publication of Il-Ħajja (the Church’s daily) in 1987, he launched the reorganisation of the Church’s media strategy through the press office, a revamped media centre and, later on, RTK radio station. In spite of all difficulties, he was all out to set up a radio station. It is a pity that there was not enough space for these notable achievements of Mercieca in the biography.)
In an attempt to communicate the Pope’s speech to as many people as possible, tens of thousands of leaflets were printed.
Door- to- door distribution was planned. However there was a technical hitch which delayed the finalisation of the leaflet from a Friday evening to a Saturday late morning.
On Saturday morning, the decision was taken not to distribute the leaflets. According to a well-placed rumour in the corridors of the Curia, the government had threatened to invoke the Corrupt Practices Act if the leaflets were distributed.
Manuel Mallia, during his speech at the launch of the Xinhua news agency in Malta described himself as the Minister for State Broadcasting
The leaflets were stored in a room in the Curia and were only destroyed a few years later.
Are these just nostalgic recollections with no current reverberation?
Last week’s edition of The Malta Independent on Sunday reported that the schedule of the PBS stations was presented to the Cabinet and that officials from the Office of the Prime Minister are orchestrating the setting up of the schedules of the PBS run stations. These stories have been in circulation for quite some time.
The history of our national broadcaster has been quite tumultuous, intertwined as it was with attempts at political manipulation.
In recent years, an effort was made to structurally strengthen the public service dimension in contrast to the state ownership dimension.
Lapses were made as a culture of editorial independence has not developed as much as the public service concept demands but the report in The Malta Independent on Sunday points to a development that beggars belief.
If the report is not forcefully and credibly refuted, it means that we are fast moving away from the concept of public service broadcasting to a system of State broadcasting with the negative connotations for democracy that come with it. Perhaps we should not be surprised as Home Affairs and National Security Minister Manuel Mallia, during his speech at the launch of the Xinhua news agency in Malta (November 2013), described himself as the Minister for State Broadcasting!
We are nowhere near Xandir Malta of the 1980s but such developments do not augur well.
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt