Bloggers paid to blog, Evarist Bartolo claims

Labour education spokesman Evarist Bartolo opened a can of worms on Monday's 'Inkontri' programme on One TV, by claiming that certain bloggers are 'paid to blog' - including one whom he alluded to as 'dik tal-Bidnija' ('the blogger from Bidnija').

This was a reference to Daphne Caruana Galizia, who almost immediately responded in kind: inundating her own blog with comments about the programme's panel and its presenter.

'Does the 'Fat Controller' and his liberal Super One party know just how bad an all-male panel of talking-heads looks, especially when they're laying into a woman for her evil ways?' she blogged.

'They looked like an Inquisition Tribunal, discussing the merits of a woman accused of witchcraft, and boiling with frustration because they can no longer have her burned or flayed.'

When asked by MaltaToday if the bloggers he referred to formed part of some 'covert propaganda campaign', Bartolo said: "Bloggers are part of the GonziPN clique who want to hang on to power and are ready to attack anyone who stands in their way.

"They are rewarded financially by the public contracts they get, directly and indirectly."

During Monday's programme, Bartolo said that this was the fault of the current education system, which fails to focus on diversity.

Speaking on the same episode of Inkontri, Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando raised similar points in relation to TVM presenter (and 'retired' blogger), Lou Bondi.

Pullicino Orlando argued that Bondi had had his blog shut down for 'misbehaving': comparing his behaviour to that of a child who would suffer repercussions if he/she disobeyed their parents.

Bondi's blog was in fact shut down after the Labour Party had complained that it was against the Public Broadcasting Services's code of ethics for a discussion programme presenter to also be associated with partisan views, even outside his or her work with the national station.

This, the PL argued, held especially true for Bondi, as he is a renowned sympathiser of the Nationalist Party.

Pullicino Orlando also lambasted Caruana Galizia for using her blog to attack the children of politicians: including a high-profile Labour Party official's five-year-old daughter, who suffers from a minor speech defect.

"It is evident that Caruana Galizia and ex-blogger Bondi joined forces every time they wanted to launch an attack on certain individuals who didn't form part of a clique by posting destructive comments," Pullicino Orlando said.

He also slammed Caruana Glaizia once again for having written in her site in the wake of Guido de Marco's funeral, which she stated "was a reason to celebrate".

Pullicino Orlando said that he firmly believed that even PN leader and Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was against bloggers posting such negative comments. But Bartolo retorted that if a party leader was against such comments, he could surely take action to stop these bloggers from inciting hatred.

"If a party leader really disagreed with comments made by bloggers, there were ways how he can stop them," Bartolo said. "These bloggers form part of a network (clique), and are accountable to nobody."

The former education minister also distinguished between comments made in a public venue (such as a blog), and private comments which were afterwards leaked or otherwise made public: referring specifically to the recent comments passed by outgoing Sliema local council mayor Joanna Gonzi and incumbent councillor Julian Galea, who were caught stating their feelings privately which they obviously wouldn't have liked leaked.

"Bloggers are an open book. When they comment in a public domain, their comments can be accessed by everybody.

"What's particularly worrying is when a political party ends up depending on bloggers (who are ready to do it for the money)."

Fr Mark Montebello, who also formed part of Inkontri's panel, provided a slightly different perspective by arguing that bloggers also express people's sentiments at times, reflecting the talk in the street.

The phenomenon is common to all parts of the world: Spain, France, the UK - so Malta, he said, seemed to be merely following suit by injecting similar trends in its own society.

Meanwhile, programme presenter Grima expressed sheer dismay at the comments made by a number of individual bloggers recently. He referred to the recent spate of comments as 'fascist' - "shocking talk which used to be heard only in the past, a time which he had thought was all dead and buried!"

The programme ran a feature on Joanna Gonzi's recent unflattering comments towards her Labour colleagues on the Sliema council; former PN councilor Alexis Callus on the justification of burying Labourites on unconsecrated ground (known colloquially as the 'mizbla'); Gozo Minister Giovanna Debono's interactive white-board comments, in which she suggested that all Labourites were ignorant to modern technology; Sliema councillor Julian Galea's discriminatory talk about his 'phobia' of PL supporters, and finally, a regular blog in The Times which referred to Labourites as the 'great unwashed": depicting Labourites as poor beggar children straight out of Oliver Twist.