The Broadcasting Authority has finally woken up to the reality of a public broadcasting service that has once again become a mere propaganda machine manipulated by the Labour Party in office.
The Broadcasting Authority understood that the barrage of ‘advertisements’ paid for by the Labour government to try to justify the new power station, shrouded in secrecy and controversy, was in breach of the requirement of impartiality. It awarded the Nationalist Party 20 adverts of 30 seconds each (a grand total of ten minutes to make up for hours of blatant government propaganda) to offer the audience its own views on this controversial political issue.
The remedy is nearly only of a symbolic nature, but in this day and age it is significant none the less that the Broadcasting Authority had the courage to see the light at least about this flagrant case.
In the 1980s, Francis Zammit Dimech had produced two books about how Xandir Malta, as the State broadcaster was then known, had become a mere instrument seeking to create a Socialist generation. As he explained in his books, the only reason that the State broadcaster had not succeeded to reach that aim was not for lack of trying, but for trying too hard.
Rather than airing political adverts for the government, PBS should be discussing wages dropping in real terms
The two books were The Untruth Game and its Maltese translation and update: Il-Logħba tal-Qerq. I had the honour to supply photos for the books from my own collection.
Following the decision by the Broadcasting Authority, Zammit Dimech who appeared for the Nationalist Party in the proceedings before the authority, was explaining on television that the government ‘adverts’ should have been seen for what they were: political adverts dealing with the ultimate in political controversy and should therefore have been disallowed from the outset.
The law specifically prohibits political advertising unless it is within a balanced scheme of political broadcasts that is drawn up by the Broadcasting Authority treating the parties equally.
The authority in this case realised that, at the barest minimum, it had to accept the fact that the government ‘adverts’ were dealing with a subject of current public policy and thus had to follow the basic rules of balance and impartiality.
Lodging this complaint and successfully arguing about these basic principles, the Nationalist Party has given our Broadcasting Authority a ‘wake up’ call, even if the same Broadcasting Authority has been opting repeatedly to press the snooze button each and every time earlier ‘wake up’ calls were ringing through complaints that were filed by the PN and which should have been heeded.
A prime example was when the Prime Minister opted to become an actor in our homes with his infamous New Year Day message, pretending to be visiting a couple who had just acquired a new (rather well-furnished) home to do a sales pitch for his party in office. This message remains popularly known as ‘the kitchen advert’.
Even if the method followed now is subtler than that followed in the 1980s, not least because PBS knows that as a result of pluralism that had been introduced by a Nationalist government it no longer enjoys an unfettered broadcasting monopoly, the Untruth Game is being played all over again.
In many respects it is worse – since the Untruth Game at this stage does not extend merely to the public broadcasting sector but has become a way of government in all fields. One need only mention the Prime Minister inaugurating what was supposed to be Malta’s first veterinary hospital when all he did was to re-inaugurate a facility that had already been set up by the Nationalist administration but which has been given to a new operator and kept St Francis out of the picture.
Indeed the ‘Art of the Lie’, as the The Economist so aptly expressed it in its front cover story of September 10, is becoming the norm of what are also being referred to as ‘post-truth politics’. The phenomenon is not limited to Malta, but Muscat and his Labour colleagues qualify as professors in this new devious art.
Programmes that have a real following and bother to scrutinise the government’s actions for real such as Times Talk are axed, but in the meantime other outfits are introduced that are obviously more to the liking of Castile.
Equally, Salvu Mallia who knew how to present our rich historical heritage to his television audience in a highly popular manner, is asked to go off the air the moment that he takes exception to the manifest corruption of this government.
Which leads me to ask: have you heard of the new scheme through which if you are a contractor building and selling apartments but have some that you simply cannot get rid of, all you have to do is to offer them to the government and ask it to wipe out your income tax arrears?
This is the Café Premier and Gaffarena scandals all over again. When will this government ever learn? Very simple answer: the government is too steeped in corruption to learn. And in post-truth politics style they had a ready answer: it’s a ‘swap’.
As Robert Abela – hardly of any Nationalist inclination – told the Times of Malta, the simple way should have been for these contractors to sell the properties in question themselves and pay their income tax arrears. Or alternatively, the government sues them and the properties are sold by auction in settlement of their dues to the Inland Revenue Department. Any other so-called ‘innovative approach’ can open the door to abuse and corruption.
This is what PBS should be discussing, rather than engaging in a barrage of propaganda spots paid for by the taxpayer.
Regarding the new private power station, public broadcasting should have been discussing the secret and shady deal by which the government has committed all electricity bill-payers to buy all the production of the privately-owned power station for a full 18 years at prices that are double what Enemalta is now paying to buy electricity through another Nationalist Party project: the interconnector between Malta and Sicily, linking Malta to the European electricity grid and thus to a competitive electricity market.
Instead of pure propaganda spots for the government, PBS might like to discuss the latest findings of a study conducted by the government itself on a very large and representative sample of 200 collective agreements deposited with it by unions and employers covering no less than 30,000 workers.
This study was published by the government in its latest Economic Survey presented with the budget. It shows that most workers have seen wage increases that weren’t enough to keep up with inflation in the 12 months to last August. The real wages of unionised workers are going down in real terms, let alone workers not covered by a collective agreement.
This is what the Truth Game would be about, rather than ‘The Untruth Game’ we experienced in the 1980s with a repetition now.
We recently had to move our clock back by one hour. Labour in government has sent public broadcasting back by at least 30 years.