Usually, the week before and after the Budget speech are dream weeks for government communication strategists. The first one is ideal for spinning galore and for curtain raising. Journalists flock to government spokespersons to get titbits or whole chunks of the Budget. One day the strategist leaks one benefit, the next day he leaks a policy.

And as a thank you for all these leaks, the strategist expects journalists to pay in kind on a rainy day.

Budget day dominates the media big time, and the week after is usually taken up by a number of the pre-planned pseudo-events that milk the benefits announced during the Budget speech.

This year was an exception. The dream morphed into a nightmare. Traffic on the social media concentrated more on the negative stories that followed each other in quick succession than on the Budget.

The press conferences planned to enable the Prime Minister to brag about the goodies distributed during the Budget speech ended up discussing the stories that were negatively affecting the government’s image as well as its credibility.

Some examples suffice.

The court requested the Commission for the Administration of Justice and the Attorney General to investigate Labour MP Luciano Busuttil for an alleged conflict of interest in connection with the granting of a tender by Cospicua local council.

The tender was won by a bidder, allegedly a client of Busuttil who had given the council advice to disqualify the competitor.

Busuttil’s defence of his action was rather lame; lamer beyond ima­gination was the defence moun­ted by the Prime Minister.

Then it was the turn of minister Helena Dalli. The media broke the story that illegal works were being carried out in a villa that owned by the Dallis. The first line of defence – we did not know of the works – leaked more than a sieve.

The villa is just a few metres away from the residence of the Dallis and machinery of a company owned by the minister were photographed at the place where the work was being carried on.

The other line of defence was that the works were the responsibility of the person with whom the Dallis had concluded a promise of sale, ignoring the fact they were still the owners.

The saying about Caesar’s wife is an apt one to quote in this scenario as more is expected from a minister than is to be expected by a common land speculator.

Then the court decided to issue an injunction provisionally prohibiting the government from signing a contract with Autobuses de Leon awarding it the concession to ope­rate public transport come January 1, 2015. The first problem for government is whether it will respect the January deadline. The Prime Minister assured us that it will. People raised their eyebrows, remembering that the Prime Minister struck his credibility to the power station being ready on time.

But the injunction raises a more serious question about good governance. Island Buses, the Maltese consortium, are claiming that the parameters of the expression of interest were abusively changed, thus giving Autobuses de Leon an unfair advantage over the other bidders.

If they prove in court that the goalposts were changed, the government’s claim that it is honest and transpa­rent would be seriously wounded.

If on top of the transport contract debacle, the Dragonara Gaming Ltd claim against the government is also proven in court, the result could, potentially, be fatal.

Dragonara Gaming is saying that the report prepared by the technical committee found in its favour but, after the minister dismissed this committee, the contract was not awarded to them but to the loser in the contest. Things got worse as an allegation of perjury has just been added to the implied allegation of corruption.

As if all this were not enough, since Wednesday night, all hell broke loose as the Wild West attitude of the chauffeur of minister Manuel Mallia was compounded by the accusation that the ministry’s first statement on the incident smells too much of an attempted cover-up, as did the nice words about the driver spoken by Mallia during a press conference on Thursday morning.

Besides, this is just one incident in a list just short of the Great Wall of China.

Since it became public knowledge that the minister had half a million euros at home, Mallia has been embroiled in one misconduct after another.

The above can be seen from the perspective of the communication strategists of the government, the media and the courts.

These past two weeks showed that a vigilant free press is of the essence of democracy

It is very clear, and it is becoming ever clearer, that the slick communication strategies adopted before the general election seem to have evaporated soon after. One issue after another was mishandled.

Though in defence of the government’s communication strategists it should be emphasised that it is difficult to halt a tsunami of self-imposed disasters, and that even the best communication gurus can only spin so much and not more.

It is also pertinent to ask why no role has been publicly played by Carmelo Abela, the Labour MP who has been promoted to position of government spokesperson.

At least three of the above cases clearly manifest the importance of an independent judiciary for the good functioning of a democracy.

It is good to see the courts standing their ground. On the other hand, the police have still to give us proof of their independence.

The role of the media in all this shows how essential the free media is in any modern democratic society. Some of the above stories came to light only thanks to the investigative work of a number of journalists from different media houses.

Had it not been for these journalists too many things would have been buried under the carpet.

We would not have known about the illegal works carried out at the villa owned by minister Dalli.

The contents of the report penned by the technical committee that evaluated the bidders for a casino concession could have remained secret, just as the results of a number of inquests carried within Mallia’s ministry have been kept secret.

Besides, the truth about the many serious ramifications of the shooting incident would have been bypassed as we would have been lumped by the first statement of Mallia’s ministry which tried to whitewash over the incident.

These past two weeks showed that a vigilant free press is of the essence of democracy.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt