PN media launches offensive against independent media on divorce

The Nationalist Party’s media house has launched an offensive against the independent media in the run-up to the 28 May referendum on divorce, accusing news organisations of “unprecedented imbalance” in their reports.

Media.Link is arguing that media houses have a right to their stands in favour of divorce, but it took the mantle of the Catholic Church when it said practically all the Maltese media was trying to discredit the institution’s teachings.

Yesterday, the PN’s Sunday weekly il-mument published a double-page spread featuring MaltaToday and Illum, The Malta Independent on Sunday, The Sunday Times, and Torca’s front pages, claiming they target the Catholic Church in an “orchestrated campaign to discredit it”.

Going by il-mument’s graphics, the newspapers are targeted for carrying interviews with critics such as Fr Colin Apap, and PN mayor Ian Castaldi Paris who criticised the efficiency of Church tribunals; the Independent’s and Torca’s reports on priests denying house blessings to people who vote ‘yes’ to divorce; and the Sunday Times’s report on Archbishop Paul Cremona addressing complaints on priests’ behaviour.

But while the title of the spread claims an 'unprecedented imbalance', this is not due to the reports on both sides of the divorce divide, but due to reports on the Catholic Church's teachings and its clergy. “Six Sunday newspapers out of seven had attacks of subtle reports that send the message that the Church is making an unjust or immoral pressure on its members…”

In one paragraph in bold type, the article (signed by ‘Special Correspondent’) reads: “According to the Maltese Constitution, the Roman Apostolic Catholic Church have the duty and right to teach which principles are good and bad…”

Both Mediatoday and Standard Publications, which publishes The Malta Independent, haven taken editorial stands in favour of divorce, while the PN-owned Media.Link communications are following the party line against divorce.

“We’re not writing this as a form of condemnation or censure but so that we lay it down for the record that those in favour of divorce have not been in any way disadvantaged… whatever happens in the referendum, there has never been such an imbalance in the media.”

The new twist in the PN’s anti-divorce campaign is a far cry from the inclusiveness of its 2003 campaign in favour of European Union accession – Eddie Fenech Adami’s reach-out to parties, NGOs, unions and employers was etched in a historic photo of leaders united in the quest for EU membership.

Media.Link’s line follows on from claims by Zwieg bla Divorzju of ‘discrimination’ by the Broadcasting Authority during its televised interviews from journalists, to be broadcast this week.

Zwieg bla Divorzju spokesperson Kevin Papargiorcopulo has refused to specifically name which journalists and media houses the anti-divorce lobby feels are biased in favour of divorce.

The Broadcasting Authority dismissed the claims of discrimination and said it “cannot subject itself to this sort of pressure by any movement.”

BA chief Pierre Cassar said the authority is carrying out its work with the greatest impartiality and transparency with the two movements involved in the referendum according to how it is expected to do by law, and is merely performing its duty according to the law.