You would have thought that after years and years of being quietly connected to the Maltese islands I would have understood the workings of my own industry there - the media. But dear reader, you are so very, very wrong!
Whist never actually never having had any role or part to play personally in any aspect of the Malta media scene I have viewed quietly from behind my newspaper in little street cafes, in my favourite little bars, in the seclusion of my hotel and rented apartment rooms and through one or two well meaning poor souls who have offered their services in an advisory capacity over the past couple of decades.
I have followed (ever so discretely) the almost insane newsroom/management/political battles coming and going. The legislative compromises and the incredible totally crazed fall-out with broadcast deregulation.
It has been and continues to be a soap opera to outmatch 'EastEnders', 'Coronation Street' and even 'Dallas'. Full of promises, threats, theatre, high-level intervention, cocked-up contracts, business ego trips, drama and, most laughable of all, the total editorial polarisation of all time - when all fails they just give away their cherished alleged impartiality and create stations for the political parties!
I was talking to a late friend of mine a few years ago. He, much to his dying regret, had offered a few tantalising words of advice to someone who was (and presumably still is) fairly well connected and close to the political engine room in Valletta.
He told me he felt completely drained. A country with a population of nearly 400,000 planning a deregulated broadcast system on the scale of the USA! It was diversity on speed! The door was opening so wide the hinges were falling off! I told him he had wasted his time, poor fellow. He said that the meetings were always very cordial but the simple words of wisdom were water off a duck’s back. "They listened", he said, "we drank whiskey and then did the complete opposite". "It is turning into the biggest media nightmare ever!"
He mentioned to me the prospect of politically run stations and I laughed out loud. Sadly this person isn't with us any more but I can remember whilst I was laughing how he looked stone-faced and said that they (the politicians) had jumped from the frying pan right into the fire.
Years on the fire still blazes as strong as ever.
I write this because, as you know, dear reader, I love Malta with all my heart. Writing these blogs is about as far as I go to revealing my true feelings! My friends in London especially have thought for years that I have lost the plot! But they have recognised that my work (which piles in sometimes) is sharper and stronger after a large dose of my passion.
Remember, my love of Malta has grown out of years as being a silent observer. I have watched the Maltese world go by in person and now online in my absence. I have drawn the conclusion that I do somehow feel objectively connected.
I make a song and dance about the fact that I am a true socialist. I sing the praises of the ordinary folk. And I take a sharp and bitter swipe at political (and sometimes personal) greed. I speak my mind and accept that you simply cannot get everything you want in life. I realise that politicians of all flavours must be open to criticism from inside and out.
I had some time to spend yesterday and cruised around the online media scene (radio stations, television channels, blogs, newspapers and online news). I had intended to use the time to do some serious Malta property hunting but I then I went deeper and started reading articles and interviews from those creatively connected. I started reminiscing a little and catching up on a few developments. Finally (several hours later (doesn’t time fly!)) I went back to the offerings online from the radio stations, television channels, blogs, newspapers and online news.
It was a real and exhausting exercise but the result was one of a real and deepening regret. The sad horrid fact that behind my love and passion for Malta is that creepy political undercurrent.
Please don’t misunderstand me – I don’t mean that the politicians are necessarily the sinister ones (!) – it’s how the system, the industry of politics has evolved and taken shape.
The most loved bedfellow of any politician is the media machine. To have that machine permanently available and on tap at the slightest beck and call must be sheer heaven. For the consumer, my beloved “ordinary folk” it must be boredom made in hell where the flames rage on and on.
