ToonToday: Down under

Editorial • 16 FEBRUARY 2003

What, is there a war?

They were described as the largest peace demonstrations since the Vietnam war. In Malta there was nothing close to a mass protest.
It is so typical. As the world community frets and worries about war, the Maltese put all their energies in a never ending debate over partnership versus membership.
It is proof perhaps of the state of mind of us Maltese. Insular, inward looking and egotistical.
We do not believe that war will impinge on our lives. We continue to believe that nothing can influence our way of life.
One must appreciate the stance taken by the Germans, French and Belgians. But one should not forget Austria, a neutral state within the European Union, has asked the Americans not to transport any military hardware through their borders. This leaves the US no alternative but to ship its military hardware from Rotterdam to the Adriatic sea.
There are some things the American government simply refuses to fathom. Listening to top US officials talk of France and Germany making big mistakes with their antiwar stance, one starts to wonder whether the US should be taken seriously at all.
Malta has little to lose from taking a tougher stance on warmongering. It is Europe and the Mediterranean countries that are important for us.
No one is advocating breaking off relations with the US, all that we are saying is that the call for restraint should be loud and clear.

Not completely correct

The protestations made by Joe (Peppi) Azzopardi et al against the Broadcasting Authority decision to flood PBS with discussion programmes is understandable, until that is, Joe Azzopardi starts forgetting that he is not the only one around with a stake in the media.
The sudden decision to have Xarabank screened at 7.25pm on PBS led to other programmes, such as Reporter produced by Maltatoday, to be relegated to an inferior time band.
We did not cry murder. We simply accepted the decision with some regret.
Joe Azzopardi was not happy enough with this. In a statement sent to the press this week, he said he had expected the Broadcasting Authority to invite him and his team to press conferences on PBS. So far so good. But then he argued that MaltaToday, a Sunday newspaper, had been invited to the MBA’s Press conferences while ‘Where’s Everybody’ had not.
A minute before he was lamenting that the press conferences where denying his programmes their prime time slots now he wanted to be part of them.
This comment beckons for a correction.
It is the publishing house that is invited, not the newspaper. And when compared to other publishing houses it should be noted that our publishing house will only be present at one of seven press conferences even though we publish: MaltaToday, True, The Malta Financial & Business Times, Sunday Circle, Economic Update and other media products.
Mr Azzopardi’s bone of contention was that Where’s Everybody also has a newspaper, albeit one that is given out free and not distributed in retail outlets.
Mr Azzopardi has all our sympathy and endless support when it comes to MLP boycotts, reprisals and unnecessary censorship from the MBA but not when he proceeds to have the cake, eat it and in the process throw up all over his colleagues in the media.