Digital graffiti on the Qalet Marku tower.An image went viral on social media last week, showing graffiti on the 17th-century coastal watchtower at Qalet Marku in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq. The story escalated when the picture was picked up by sections of the media and published online.
Within a short time, it transpired that the graffiti in the photo was fake and had been added digitally to the image of the tower as part of a university student digital art project. The panic was over.
It is not surprising that people were taken in. When I first saw it I also thought it looked real. People are accustomed to occasional graffiti vandalism and in this image it was hard to tell that the graffiti was added digitally. Not long ago real graffiti was sprayed on the new City Gate in Valletta, and on the old Qolla l-Bajda coastal tower at Marsalforn in Gozo.
The shock factor of graffiti lies in the choice of wall. Nobody bats an eyelid at the extensive, real graffiti on the White Rocks complex at Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq, even though experts in architectural history have highlighted the value of these buildings. Great sites like Fort Campbell or Fort Delimara, dating back to the British period, are literally falling to pieces and graffiti is the least of their problems.
Yet coastal towers are not to be messed with. People have developed a sense of reverence towards buildings linked to the Knights of St John which almost elevates them to the status of sacred sites.
The digital graffiti on the Qalet Marku tower is just a small, benign example of the deluge of false images and fictional news reports that are continually circulated on the internet. Habitual users develop an ingrained scepticism towards what they see and read online.
Wandering around the internet can be quite confusing. This just proves how important it is to have reliable and independent mainstream news outlets. They may not get it right every time, but at least you know that they are committed to being factual and objective and would not deliberately mislead their readers. Or that’s the theory, anyway.
We have a few independent newspapers in Malta, and this is one of them, but the same cannot be said for our television stations. Two of them are openly used as propaganda machines for the two main political parties and are therefore not perceived to be objective or wholly reliable.
To rub salt in the wound, staff from political stations are transferred directly to the official communications offices of the government, giving the unfortunate impression that the government machine is also driven by relentless partisan campaigning.
This makes it even more critical for the public broadcaster to be trusted. Unfortunately it has frequently come under fire as a government tool over the years, irrespective of which party is in power.
On the internet, nobody is in charge
PBS has the duty to serve the interests of the public, not political parties, and to provide quality programmes. Politicians are driven by the fight to gain or retain power, but the public broadcaster has different aims. If it loses sight of objectivity then this would be a disservice to the public.
It is so easy to land on the wrong foot when there is a lack of trust. For example, whatever the reasons were for Bondiplus being axed by PBS after the last election, it was readily interpreted by all sides as political intrigue. PBS is run on commercial lines and this was one of their top shows, so it was to be expected that people would not take this decision at face value.
Credibility is paramount. The independent newspapers often give explanations of why they choose to publish a story, or to ditch it. They apologise when they get the facts wrong.
On the internet, it is more like a free for all. Manipulated images, fake videos and fabricated stories constantly do the rounds, mixed with the more serious stuff and a huge dollop of chit-chat. On the internet, nobody is in charge.
In this chaos, social media are a magnet for the Maltese chattering classes who prattle on about local politics, art, sports, world affairs and the latest bit of gossip to their heart’s content. Nothing wrong with that, mind you. Too much Facebook drivel will do your head in, but much better to have some fake graffiti than censorship or silence.
Social media have also grown into important hunting grounds for politicians, who use them to follow trends in public opinion and to make announcements which sometimes resurface on the mainstream media.
Older people who are less confident using the internet are not as savvy about its boundaries and hazards as younger people, and they are known to be more easily taken in by the frequent internet scams.
Although you might generally recognise links that are viruses and refuse to send your personal bank details to strangers, this is a false sense of security as it is actually very easy to be tricked on the internet.
The graffiti on the tower was a minor matter but it duped many.
petracdingli@gmail.com