Mediawatch

The Horse's Mouth

One of the basic tenets of journalism that probably everybody and his brother has heard about is the principle of the 5 “W”s. It’s a concept that underpins the writing of a complete investigative answer by asking the questions “Who? What? Where? Why? and When?” and trying to provide an answer to all of them or an at least an indication as to why those answers were not immediately available. The additional question “How?” has occasionally been pinned onto the back of the original 5 Ws. In my last but one post “Don Paolo and the Recalcitrant Consiglieri” I started to track the “Nikki Dimech Gate” story and the reporting being made by MaltaToday on the subject. I tried to point out that the information being made available by the eager sleuths at MT is flimsy and lends itself more to unqualified speculation rather than presentation of hard and fast facts.

Now I am sure that MT’s sleuths have launched into the investigation with the best intentions of remaining the much needed breath of fresh air in investigative journalism that goes beyond the pure partisan aspects which we have gotten used to over the ages. I do not need convincing over this as much as I do not need convincing that MT has a mixed agenda of its own (known in polite circles as “editorial policy”) that merges market necessity (the need to quench public thirst for conspiracy theory style news/scandal – defined as any bit of news that provokes the reaction “X’gharukaza”) and a hazy political position that cannot be as easily and wittily summarised.

There is however something that Professors DeGaetano and De Marco would call a continuous crime of ommission occuring within this particular spate of reporting on DimechGate. While we should thank our lucky stars that there is a team of journalists who are interested in asking questions beyond the party spin and press release this does not mean that we – especially the newcomers to the Fourth Estate  such as bloggers – should not question certain vacuums in the line of thought. In the previous post we wondered why so much was being made on the supposed threat uttered by bungling PN SecGen PBO involving Dimech and a 72 year old councillors’ mother. Rationally reasoning out that threat brings out not two but three possible meanings:

1) We will eliminate your nonogenarian mother should you not comply with party policy (the mafia interpretation)

2) get off the bloody phone and talk with your mum later – we’re talking Dimechgate now (the impatient PBO interpretation)

3) we helped you rmum in so many ways and forget about that help if you persist in ignoring our position (the sleazy retraction of favours interpretation)

You will immediately notice that barring interpretation number 2 which is the milder of the three, the other two interpretations (Mafia and Retraction of Favours) qualify as forcible coercion to sign an impeachment motion. Now that is not something to be taken lightly. For PBO it could mean heaps of trouble – and I do not mean the contradiction in policy that was highlighted by the swift ostracisation of Nikki Dimech while still harbouring a 40 year old man being tried for sex crimes. Coercing a local councillor into signing a motion against his or her will is not just not kosher in today’s day and age but it could also have criminal consequences. Contrary to what public opinion may be on the subject, PLPN whips and Secretary generals are not the equivalent of their communist counterparts. They may give the impression that they can control everything under the sun (and some hidden hands like to think that they do just that) but the reality of the matter is that if we expect to be living in a liberal democracy in the 21st century then its local councillors should be free thinking human beings who can – if they so believe – go against the party line on a matter of principle.

So hurrah to MT for uncovering this particular phase. What happened next though continued to force me to question MT’s policies.  When councillor Camilleri was summoned to the police station for questioning, the knee jerk reaction on MT was to slap a title to the article that went on the lines of “PBO’s threat comes true as 72 year old councillor summoned for questioning by police”. I cannot link or quote verbatim because thankfully, it seems, there has been a rethink and the original title has changed. And there is an obvious reason for this. The reason is that no matter how much you may wish to toe the line that PBO has a hidden hand in police circles and that this DimechGate has been orchestrated from the start as some sort of elaborate frame up to rid Sliema of Dimech there is one fatal flaw in standing by this argument this time: PBO has absolutely no interest in having the police go  over his discussion with the Sliema councillor.

Somebody at the MT team must have noticed that because what I think is the new title to the article that appeared online yesteday is ”
Paul Borg Olivier worried as Sandra Camilleri gets called in by Police, after his threatening meeting with PN councilor”. (Yes, MT stick to their US English dictionary). Now that’s more like it. Which really means that the police have been acting very kosher all along. I have no particular interest in defending or attacking the police corps but hey you cannot blame them for investigating DimechGate from the start if there was a report of corruption by government officials and PN administration. You cannot blame the police either, for launching a possible investigation into the coercion of a public person involved in the administration of a local council. That fettering of discretion is an administrative crime and cannot be allowed to happen.MT has corrected its earlier eagerness to run along with the whole La Piovra & Don Paolo theory involving god knows what hidden hands in the process.

We are back to more rational lines where a number of questions are being asked rightly of our political system. This “mani pulite” phase in the short history of local council politics might involve the relative lightweights of PLPN politicking but it could turn out to be a valuable eye-opener as to the many no-nos committed in the name of partisan hegemony. Let us not forget that Nikki Dimech is being crucified for an alleged request for commission that would amount to a maximum of €240 (10 to 20% of €1200) and that Elizabeth Vella had to resign after receiving €80 that were not registered in the council’s accounts. By no means should such actions go unnoticed and unpunished (if you want to use that word) but this is still the same country where there is no rule on party financing and transparency and where the interests of contractors, investors and developers are curiously intertwined with the creme de la creme of our political high society (the heavyweights) right?

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Clueless at Bondiplus

This has to be the facebook quote of the week. After last season’s ‘controversial’ programmes Bondi+ will be back again with more of the topical, relevant and cutting edge investigative journalism. Don’t hold your breath though, judging by today’s facebook post we are in for another mind-numbing ride:

Lou Bondi: This is the time of year when I start getting a knot in the stomach: how can we come up with another 9 months worth of topics for Bondiplus? Then the knot goes away by mid-September and before I know it its June. 18 years in the business and the same thing happens every year.

Go figure.

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Don Paolo and the Recalcitrant Consiglieri

The heat of the summer and the explosive events have not detracted the team at MaltaToday (MT) from their persistence in turning the Nikki Dimech saga into another interwoven epic of a conspiracy theory. The state funeral of one of Malta’s most respected politicians and the Mosta fireworks bang spoilt the plans for the MT team who were probably counting on the boring period of Santa Maria to sell the conspiracy spin to the utmost. Lest you think we are about to make a full mockery of the MT news item regarding the goings on around the latest local councillor to be declared incompetent we beg you to hold your equines for a little longer.

The story as recounted by the eager wolves of MT is definitely more intriguing (and almost twice as credible) as the news coming from the sheep at Strickland House’s HMV (His Master’s Voice – known in some circles as the Times of Malta). First we had the allegations of illicit behaviour and financial misdemeanours at the Sliema local council. So far, so good. As local councils go these days financial embezzlement and general mishandling by those catapulted to the forefront of the local scene by the PLPN headhunters are becoming more and more commonplace. In this case it was young turk Nikki Dimech who was being investigated for a period of time. Things started to hot up when Nikki Dimech tried to organise an emergency council meeting to clear the air and demonstrated the unqualified naivety of an untutored renegade left up shit creek with no paddle and no organisational back up to speak of. Arrigo, his mentor in Sliema, was nowhere to be seen at this point and the spinmeisters at Dar Centrali kept their distance.

Dimech’s failed meeting did take place some time later only to turn out to be a doctored meeting that had nothing of the “emergency” air that had been trumpeted earlier. The heavy hand of party interference (or guidance?) could be felt at that point though to say that the Sliema councillors were comfortable with the situation at that point would be tantamount to saying that Sliema Wanderers will one day have good odds to win the Champions’ League. So Dimech’s robotic address at the meeting was registered on camera a few days before he was summoned to the police station to answer a few questions.

Which is where Dimech’s (and the PN’s) Midsummer’s Nightmare starts – and where MT begins its party. First it was announced ad urbi et orbi that Dimech was admitting his guilt and that he had solicited commissions from a contractor (an Arrigo supporter to boot) for some council works. Information is thrown at the reader like an unfinished novel. What importance, for example, is the fact that the contractor in question is a supporter of Arrigo (presumably this also means that he foots some bills in election time thanks to our lovely laws on party and candidate funding – whatever happened to the crime of lying on oath?)? The equation should have been – and is – Dimech is backed by Arrigo and hence should therefore be nice to Arrigo’s supporters. Iddardarx l-ilma etc etc…

Then there was the ploy of a frame-up with the collaboration of the men supposed to keep the law and order. Dimech’s friends (note: NOT DIMECH) were alleging that he was coerced to sign the confession and that such coercion included the denial of an all important inhaler. The police were the villains aiding an invisible hidden hand that had everything but the interests of Dimech to heart. Funny. Apart from the immediate police denials one would expect MT to ask Dimech himself whether his friends are being solidal out of disbelief or whether there was some truth in that story. Not really. Well so long as his friends say it.

Dimech in the meantime was holding on to his seat in the council. He refused to resign and stayed on as an independent councillor. Not many brownie points for someone who has just admitted his guilt to the men in uniform but since the law does not provide for his immediate impeachment then that got the PN in a twist. Our electoral laws do tend to get the PLPN in a twist in such situations since we do not really elect party people to councils or parliament but we directly choose our representatives. All the PN could do was Dimech from the party and take their distance which you can bet your bottom euro they did at the earliest opportunity. What was left was for the PN to get Dimech to let go of his mayoral post.

Which meant that Paul Borg Olivier had to reluctantly acknowledge that there is  more to local councils than preparing long lists of catch all candidates. He would have to leave the airconditioned office in Dar Centrali, postpone all trips on superyachts and meet the consiglieri. The point of all this meeting being of course the dismissal by vote of no confidence of Nikki Dimech from his mayoral post. MT’s investigative sleuths got wind of these meetings and were present at the Lady Di pub in Sliema when PBO met 72-year old Consigliera Sandra Camilleri.

As we learn in the article (Your mother or Nikki Dimech, Borg Olivier tells 72 year old councillor) , Madam Camilleri still enjoys the company of her own mother at the ripe age of 72. Don Paolo does not seem to manage to get Madam Camilleri away from the idea proposed by the “friends of Nikki Dimech” that there has been some sort of frame up. According to the journalist overhearing the conversation Camilleri sticks to the frame up idea rather obstinately and is reluctant to sign up to PBO’s plan to depose the tainted mayor. It is then that, according to MT, Don Paolo chooses to up the ante and comes up with a rather enigmatic phrase: “Your mother or Dimech”.

There is it is. A phrase reminescent of those Mafia style movies where the victim is told without any measure of equivocation that the life of another person depends on their making the right decision. It’s the classical offer they can’t refuse. But is it? The article in question is full of dropping of innuendos and includes a whole episode of PBO making a mockery of the councillor’s dedication to her agèd mama but surely the shady dealings of the PN inner sanctum do not include contract killings of aged women in old people’s homes (we presumed the latter fact). Premature termination of life cannot ever feature on the PN agenda – at least because it would be rather contradictory to the party line on abortion. So what did PBO mean with his offer? Even if we take the MT story with a pinch of salt (as you generally do since the MT does take to see the Sun or Daily Mail side of things) you are still left with a sort of hanging threat.

The only excuse we could think of was that PBO got miffed by Camilleri’s constant calls with her mother on mobile and that the phrase was an exhortation to concentrate on matters at hand: “Your mother or Dimech” sounds much less dangerous now. I sure as hell hope that  Paul can say that this is the case. Otherwise we really have gone to the dogs. I eagerly await the full version on the Sunday paper but in the meantime I really cannot shake the image of PBO and JP Debono as a PN version of Samuel Jackson and John Travolta sent on some business by Marcellus Wallace.

Pleasures yet to come eh?

The MT Video: As illustrative as a braille encyclopaedia

The Real Duo at Work: Big Kahuna Burger Coercion

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The PN Conclave

Marthese Portelli, Lawyer, Politician, Malta

Image via Wikipedia

“Ideas, Vision, Discussion” is the heading of the new Pre-Budget Document presented by the PN government. There must have been plenty of exchange of ideas, possibly a little vision and quite a vivid discussion happening at the meeting of the PN Executive Committee presided over by (PN President) Marthese Portelli (read the link and do tell me how many ideas and how much vision you can discern from the over 1,000 word interview – apart from the “jobs for Gozitans rant” and the claim to fame of multiplication of votes in favour). The executive met in the open manner of dialogue and transparency that the PN has gotten its potential voters used to. Where other parties elsewhere might hold open conferences to discuss such points of principles before the media and anybody interested, the PN must needs first get its hydra-like head together and hammer out a “common position”. We will not know exactly what the ideas, vision and discussion are all about – instead we will be presented with a single strategy.

Undoubtedly this single strategy will be built with one basic premiss in mind: VOTES. The discussion that could be prompted by such a strategy -once it is forged – is simply one based on limiting the number of votes that could be potentially alienated with a wrong step. For suggestions in this direction read Ranier Fsadni’s “Legitimising a divorce law” that already includes some calculations based on “voter alienation”. There will of course have been a number of principled positions such as those of Tonio Borg and Carm Mifsud Bonnnici who will have thundered on about the anathema of divorce to a confessional party. We will not be able to confront them with questions about the constitutional relevance of their statement and with questions about how they plan to reconcile their concept of catholic imposition with the lay state. We cannot ask members of the PN conclave whether they believe the PN should be a champion of universal rights or a champion of the catholic model of society.

The PN conclave met behind closed doors and the strategy that their archaic system of voting will forge supposedly will represent the automatic 40% of the population who already know where there vote will go come next election. The internal debate will be a “long process” in the words of an undoubtedly charming Portelli (mother, lawyer AND politican) but it will remain that for a long enough time to refine the positions. We can only count on the renegades trumping the conclave members once again. And on more anonymous voices feeding their master’s voice for the occasional doctored update. (Unless of course MaltaToday or the Indy get a longer version of these “leaks”).

At the moment all we can doat this stage of extended “discussion” is watch the smoke that comes out of the chimney… and don’t we all know that when it comes to smoke generation the PN spin gurus can turn into a mean machine.

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The Global Village

Time for J’accuse to share two new TED videos. Both concern the new media (and to a certain extent the old). Watch Alisa Miller demonstrate how little a window on world news is really available in the media and then watch Ethan Zuckerman point out the flaws in the idea of the Global Village and what is needed to fix things right.

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