There is no freedom without democracy. There is no democracy without independent journalism. There is no journalism if information is not true and accurate.

We have to look again at the fundamentals: the very basis on which our mutual interactions and the organisation of our society are built. The success of any organisation is premised on a bond of trust and a consensus on basic rules.

While the term ‘fake news’ is occasionally used with reference to some media outlets that have little or no respect for the truth, I believe that, in Malta, we need to watch out for ‘fake news’ generated directly by the government and backed by the might of its propaganda machine.

Different examples come to mind.

Setting up the so-called American University of Malta would be an obvious example of ‘fake news’ but what about more subtle feeds such as being consistently told that the economy is at its best ever to camouflage the suffering of those who, like most pensioners, cannot make ends meet.

Or that measures are being taken to place out of action the chairman of a bank being investigated for using banking activities to defy sanctions when what is really happening is that the bank he set up in Malta is being safeguarded?

Technology alone cannot be blamed for the horrors of disinformation and retrograde consequences

Or that we shall soon have the best possible healthcare when what has really happened is that the government entered into one of its most corrupt and scandalous deals ever by selling off our hospitals for a pittance to people who know nothing about healthcare and conveniently did not take too long to go bust after receiving millions of taxpayers’ euros without accounting for it?

Or that the government is all out to protect whistleblowers when what we really mean is that it all depends on the tune of the whistle?

Or, more generally, that we have reached the highest levels of transparency and accountability when the direct opposite is true?

Although the term ‘fake news’ may be relatively new, disinformation as a conscious method of collective deception is not. Fraudsters have manipulated information for as long as information existed. The narrative of the Pharaohs who had their divine arc carved on the walls of the great cities of Egypt cannot be relied upon as faithful and objective historical accounts.

Nor is disinformation as a vehicle of mass propaganda a new phenomenon.

Joseph Goebbels famously made it into an art, adapting to radio and to film his boss’s maxim from Mein Kampf that “in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily and, thus, in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie”.

The big lie of a fascist paradise and the murderous slander of blaming minorities could be propagated because it exploited masterfully the raw effectiveness of the new media of the time.

Goebbels’ radio broadcasts will sound crass and transparent to our ears. Leni Riefenstahl’s movies would sway nobody’s political views today. But to the ears and eyes of their contemporaries, they had the effect of pushing the masses in directions that went counter to the civilising instincts of an educated community.

Today’s fake news is refined to the sensibilities of the current generation. It uses the algorithmic sophistication of search engines and social media originally designed to adapt to the needs and tastes of each user but now used merely to exploit them. It uses mimicry to look to eyes too busy to analyse information exactly like the information coming from genuine sources except that it carries lies intent on creating doubt where certainty is reasonable.

But technology alone cannot be blamed for the horrors of disinformation and retrograde consequences like Brexit or Donald Trump. The message hits fertile ground.

‘Alternative facts’ take root in societies that doubt science and ‘creationists’ contest evolution. If we are to re-open to controversy on the age of the universe, why are we surprised man-made climate change or the need to vaccinate children are put in doubt? The alternative views are given equal acceptance as ‘facts’, given space on the media and, with a budget to promote those views, end up drowning reality.

Malta is fertile ground for this.

We also live in a society where social media, particularly Facebook, are practically universal and are pervasive across tastes, views and even tech-savviness.

Although we ask media platforms to act responsibly and legislate to prevent scoundrels from impersonating journalists (as we prevent people from pretending to be doctors, lawyers or architects for reasons that are obvious), controlling misinformation at source will not work out.

Our work in the European Parliament is focused on driving an agenda of educating citizens, in equipping the owners of our democracy – every member of our community – with the discerning ability to distinguish those who would seek to inform them from those who would seek to deceive them.

At times, it feels like an insurmountable challenge. But, ultimately, Goebbels’ boss’s big lie was revealed for what it was.

Today, too, we can learn to turn the page after the struggle.

Francis Zammit Dimech is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.