Opinion: Labour TV’s tactics

Justice Minister Jonathan Attard, tasked with introducing legislation to protect journalists, has inadvertently revealed he’s got absolutely no clue what a journalist’s role is.

The justice minister believes a journalist’s primary function is to deliver “the greatest electoral victories” for Labour. No wonder there’s absolutely no hope with these goons in power.

“We are proud,” Jonathan Attard on the Labour Party’s ONE TV said, “that we were journalists at the (ONE) newsroom that delivered the greatest electoral victories so that our country has the government it deserves”.

What’s even more depressing is that he’s not the only member of Labour’s cabinet with such a distorted and disturbing notion of journalists’ roles.

Echoing his shocking message was Energy Minister Miriam Dalli, Equality Minister Julia Farrugia and Public Cleanliness Parliamentary Secretary Glenn Bedingfield.

Former Labour Party president and the champion of the criminalisation of libel, Ramona Attard, chimed in with the same comments.

So did MP Amanda Spiteri Grech (no, I hadn’t heard of her either) and the notorious Rosianne Cutajar. They all declared their pride in having been part of the Labour Party’s newsroom.

They were mounting a concerted attack on Christine Amaira, who dared to pen an opinion piece criticising Minister Jonathan Attard.

Like a feral pack, the former ONE journalists were out for Amaira’s blood. In a Times of Malta article, Amaira condemned the justice minister for viciously targeting former chief justice Silvio Camilleri.

The minister had tabled a 90-page document in parliament listing 546 comments the former chief justice had uploaded on The Times’ comments board.

Camilleri criticised Labour’s cynical move to limit citizens of their right to request a magisterial inquiry.  Jonathan Attard responded in parliament with open retaliation against Camilleri, a private citizen. It was a grotesque spectacle.

The justice minister blatantly abused his massive power advantage to intimidate and harass the former chief justice. He had very clear objectives in using public resources to collate that dossier to cow the former chief justice into silence, to intimidate him, to harass him.

Christine Amaira condemned the justice minister’s assault on Camilleri. She said, “Attard’s message was in line with his previous job as a One reporter.” She was right, and that drew the intense ire of the minister and his gang.

ONE unleashed its massive firepower against Amaira, as it has repeatedly done against other journalists holding government to account, which ironically resulted in adding credence to Amaira’s point that Labour’s ONE regularly deploys its appalling tactics of harassment and intimidation.

ONE dedicated an entire news item on Amaira and, in classical ONE vein, attempted to humiliate her.  They uploaded unflattering photos of Amaira.  In one, she is pulling a face and sticking her tongue out.  In the other, she’s wearing a high-vis vest and an awkwardly ill-fitting safety helmet, and she’s walking precariously down a ramp in stiletto heels.

Labour’s ONE aimed to discredit, humiliate and ridicule her.  They lined up all of Labour’s heavyweights, declaring that it’s no dishonour to have been a ONE journalist.  They’re all proud of having served in that newsroom that delivered Labour’s greatest victories.

The shameless Rosianne Cutajar mocked:  “They even tried to discredit Joseph Muscat because he was a Super ONE reporter, and he soon showed them because he defeated them in 10 consecutive elections”.

She added, “For Christine Amaira, it’s a dishonour – on the contrary, I remain proud that I gave years of service to the ONE newsroom – a beautiful time when I learnt a lot.  I remain committed to delivering the Labour Party’s message – together, we will continue to defeat them”.

Labour’s Justice Minister Jonathan Attard and his colleagues obtusely revealed their total ignorance as to what journalists’ duties should be. It’s not winning elections for their party. That’s the role of partisan political activists, not journalists.  And therein lies the problem.

The justice minister believes that’s what “journalists” are there for. Maybe that explains his and his prime minister’s hostility towards journalists who don’t belong to ONE’s newsroom. Maybe that’s why Robert Abela calls them part of the establishment.

That’s probably why journalists are considered Labour’s number one enemy, who need to be destroyed, not protected.

But there’s a much darker side to consider. ONE’s reporters are trained to harass, intimidate and humiliate adversaries and critics. Clearly, the justice minister accepts this view, and he’s using public resources to do so.  He and his ONE newsroom need reminding that’s not what journalists do – that’s what party henchmen do.

In the past, Labour had its heavies to rough up those who expressed dissent, protested in the streets or dared go out on strike. The only thing that’s changed since the days of Lorry Sant and Wistin Abela is that the roughing up is no longer physical – but it’s equally vicious and more traumatising.

The beating up is now done online, on the airwaves and even in parliament.  Labour’s heavies are no longer ministers’ tough canvassers or Labour’s criminal police commissioner beating a man to death in prison and then discarding his lifeless body under a bridge.

Now it’s ONE reporters bashing up Labour’s critics to a pulp.  It’s the shameless justice minister lynching the former chief justice in his parliamentary speech using a state-funded dodgy dossier.

That is precisely what ONE’s reporters, present and past, excel at.  Labour and its station perfected the techniques of harassing, vilifying and persecuting opponents.  And those graduates of ONE’s newsroom are now deploying those highly refined skills in their new roles in cabinet and parliament.

Those ONE newsroom staffers, present and past, are not real journalists.  Journalists seek the truth and provide fair and comprehensive accounts of events and issues.

Journalists strive to serve the public with unbiased thoroughness and honesty. Journalists don’t pump out fiction and falsehoods.  They’re not meant to deliver “the greatest electoral victories”.  And they’re certainly not meant to persecute and intimidate perceived government critics.