Not that I was falling over myself to join, but today’s Istitut tal-Ġurnalisti Maltin statement “condemning” Daphne Caruana Galizia’s sister for stopping a self-described “One TV journalist” in his line of duty, should be enough to get any self-respecting autonomous person to walk out immediately. Their statement is an act of collaboration with an oppressive regime.
That gentleman the IĠM spoke of is not a journalist. One TV is not a news organisation. That gentleman is an employee of the Labour Party, the party in government that is seeking to shirk its political responsibility for the killing of a journalist — a real one — under its watch. One TV is a propaganda mouthpiece of that government.
That gentleman the IĠM waxed melodramatic about today was not undertaking the duty of a journalist yesterday. He was an agent of the state using his equipment to harass and put pressure on a person who for reasons that should be obvious to anyone with a soul — her sister was torn to shreds in a ball of fire, for crying out loud — was under some emotional stress. That pressure is intended, cruelly, to make her feel worse. It intentionally piles up on the pressure put on her and her relatives by other functionaries of the Labour Party there yesterday, some paid some happy to do it for free, with shouts, taunts, slander and accusation aimed at a family that are being told their sister died “għax hekk ħaqqha”.
They reduced them to tears and they made them angry. And they did that so they could film them angry and parade them as ineligible for sympathy and support. That is what they did to Daphne Caruana Galizia all her life: fixated the camera on her to wait until she reacts, dehumanised her, and convinced their crowds that she deserved to die.
Look at this poor excuse for a diving footballer on this video. He’s the guy standing on the right of the picture.
Watch him fixing his camera on someone who was not speaking. She was listening to strangers, incredibly, taunting her as if the death of her sister was her fault. And he fixed his camera on her because he is employed by the pure evil that is his employer; not because there was any journalistic value in what he was doing.
And then look at what REALLY happened when Helene Axiaq wanted to tell this slime-ball just what she thought of him.
This behaviour is standard for “One TV journalists”. State-mandated intimidation is what they’re paid to do.
The IĠM support this for free. Four months ago a journalist was blown to bits and the IĠM’s reaction was barely more dramatic than their statement of today in response to their collaborated perversion of this act of state-mandated victimisation of this family who lost more than anyone should be asked for in times of so-called peace.
Press freedom in Malta needs protecting. First item on the agenda is get press freedom spoken for by the real press.