The current discussion on the protection of journalistic sources has opened ample opportunities for reflection. This protection prohibits the authorities, including the courts, from compelling a journalist to reveal the identity of an anonymous source. The reporter’s privilege is based on the assumption that, without a legal guarantee of anonymity, informants would not be ready to reveal stories of public interest and, consequently, many problems would remain unnoticed and unopposed.
In Malta, the enactment of the law that protects the confidentiality of the source information did not come easily. This is probably the most cherished accomplishment of professionalisation efforts that journalists made in the late 1980s through an organisation that was then known as The Malta Press Club, which preceded the Institute of Maltese Journalists. It was a series of interactions between Press Club officials and former Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami that led to the legislation.
This achievement coincided with the Press Club’s effort to agree on a code of ethics and the setting up of a Press Ethics Commission, an important first step towards self-regulation. The then Press Club rightly understood that increased powers and privileges come with greater responsibilities. Professionalism entails ethical conduct that supersedes political and commercial interests.
Increased media power comes with added responsibilities.
Along the years, enforcing the code of ethics encountered hitches. While the polarised political scenario did not help, the code was no longer in tune with the competitive, pluralistic and interactive scenario that followed. Moreover, in the scramble for audience ratings, some journalists shunned and even ridiculed their obligations.
The Press Ethics Commission was not always in a position to enforce its decisions. Self-regulation stalled at its infancy because it did not receive the commitment, care and discipline needed to enable it to grow into maturity.
In recent years, the Institute of Journalists has not been very active but I strongly believe that a journalists’ organisation still has a pivotal role in contemporary times.
One of the most pressing issues is the revision of the code of ethics. Four years ago, amendments were already discussed extensively among representatives of the media and other stakeholders. I then chaired a sub-committee that proposed a revised code of ethics. The agreed final draft, which, as far as I know, has not yet been discussed by the Institute of Journalists, was the result of wide consultation and long discussion. The current chairman, Karl Wright, is committed to reawaken the effort.
This is necessary since public mistrust in the media almost matches the scepticism towards the political class. Last year, the Eurobarometer survey reconfirmed that the Maltese tend to mistrust the written press, radio and television more than other Europeans. Audience ratings or the amount of online viewings are not a measure of public confidence in the media. Let us step out of the bubble and acknowledge that increased media power comes with added responsibilities.
In advanced liberal democracies, journalists had long asserted their status as the ‘Fourth Estate’ that enjoys distinct power from the three branches of the State (the Legislative, the Executive and the Judiciary). This empowerment is now increasingly evident in the Maltese scenario where journalists are less deferential and they have asserted themselves more forcefully within the public sphere.
In an overcrowded contemporary media scenario, professional journalists may wish to distinguish themselves from other players, including ‘citizen journalists’.
As journalism strives to reinvent itself and as we pose the question of who is a journalist, traits of professionalism may provide us with potential answers. Journalism necessitates autonomy, a professional body, ethical behaviour, public esteem and a reliance on a solid body of knowledge.
A positive development that unfolded in the past 30 years is that there now exists a body of knowledge based on local research. Both the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences and the Department of Media, Communications and Technology Law within the Faculty of Law at the University of Malta may now contribute towards further reflexivity.
We must seize this opportunity to rekindle the efforts towards critical awareness, ethical conduct and the development of a self-regulatory set-up.
Carmen Sammut is a senior lecturer at the University of Malta