news
Toon
Today:
Judging the scales of justice
The right reaction
Being a journalist
can be a thankless task if you want to do it properly. We’re
not talking about the people that sit cosily in the bigwigs’
pockets and are better at spinning than Rapunzel.
No, this
is a different breed of reporter, smaller in number and at times
a species that has been on the breed of extinction – the
investigative journalist.
As far as
objectivity is concerned, both Lou Bondi and Simone Cini’s
political loyalties are public knowledge. And so, thanks to their
TV show last Tuesday, are the security shortfalls at some of Malta’s
most sensitive buildings.
We will never
know whether Ms Cini would have been so eager to participate in
a show that must have embarrassed the authorities if a Labour
government was in office, but let us put such hypotheses to one
side for now.
Last Tuesday’s
edition of ‘Bondicini’ was what investigative journalism
should be about – raising awareness on issues that the public
has the right to know about. And the authorities will not do themselves
any favours if they fail to follow up their terse statements to
the media that the security lapses are being investigated. Or
even worse, ridicule or dismiss the reporters in patronising style
as sensationalist and describe their actions as entertaining stunts.
That was a grave mistake.
Most TV viewers
are unlikely to find the news that reporters managed to walk into
areas of restricted access so easily as entertaining – far
from it – especially with all eyes on the issue of security
in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the US.
And in a
year which marks a decade since licences were distributed to the
private media, with openness surely now the order of the day,
few are the members of the public that will be reassured by platitudes
from tight-lipped officials.
Reporters
might have moved forward over the years in the way they carry
out their work, but the authorities don’t appear to have
learned how to treat questioning journalists, or a concerned public,
for that matter.
None of us
expects the authorities to impart sensitive and delicate security
arrangements to us. But we do expect to be kept informed of the
investigations that are underway as to how such security was breached.
No doubt Lou’s
skin is thick enough to take the flak that’s been thrown at
him over the last week. Let’s hope some of those stuffy officials
are wise enough to realise that they need to give us answers.
Post prandial
privileges
How do we
know summer is over? Because children have donned school uniforms?
Because the first rain of the new season has fallen? Because the
winter clothes are in the shops, the beaches are emptying and
the barbecues are being packed away?
Well yes, but also because the government departments are back
working a full day.
And what
does that mean, exactly? It means we have the privilege of being
left on hold, then being put through to five different people
and eventually being told to phone back tomorrow, in the afternoons
as well as the mornings. Yippee.
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