Zrinzo Azzopardi refuses to step down at Maltastar.com
Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, the president of the Labour party, is refusing to relinquish his position as the unofficial coordinator of maltastar.com, even though leader Joseph Muscat wants Evarist Bartolo to take control at One News.
The dwindling internet newspaper, first started by Muscat in 2001 as the party’s English-language organ, will not be under Bartolo’s control. Instead the shadow education minister is overseeing One News and its young but inexperienced reporters, after internal criticism that the newsroom was failing to attract the ‘right’ audiences.
Zrinzo Azzopardi is being blamed for the drop in popularity of the news website, which has found no respite from its appalling English even after getting in former Nationalist candidate and apologist Marisa Micallef Leyson.
Now Zrinzo Azzopardi is refusing to let go of his control on maltastar.com, which is central to the PL’s communication of its political message.
A university lecturer in journalism, Bartolo has been severely critical himself of news bulletins from party TV stations and the national station PBS. But his media-savviness and insightful political analysis make him the best positioned at giving the necessary political spin Labour requires at One TV.
Zrinzo Azzopardi emerged untouched from the 2008 electoral loss, although he was part of the team who masterminded Labour’s unsuccessful campaign. Steering clear of any blame, which fell on former leader Alfred Sant, Jason Micallef and Charles Mangion, the Naxxar lawyer hang on to his position as PL president.
He has had to wrestle with the unpopularity of his father Joe Zrinzo, a former Nationalist, renowned for his anti-EU activism which led him to switch sides to Labour right before Malta’s accession to the European Union.
