TMID Editorial: More respect for the media, please
Last Monday, media houses received a one-hour notice regarding the signing of the agreement that was to be signed at Castille between the government and the Malta Union of Teachers.The notice arrived via the Department of Information at 7.45am, and t
Last Monday, media houses received a one-hour notice regarding the signing of the agreement that was to be signed at Castille between the government and the Malta Union of Teachers.
The notice arrived via the Department of Information at 7.45am, and the event was scheduled to begin at 8.45am.
The event had been planned for days, so much so that Prime Minister Robert Abela made reference to it the Friday before. But no time or venue had been indicated.
So why should the media be informed officially just one hour before the event was due to take place? This was no emergency press call. It was one which was on the agenda, with third parties (MUT) involved, and there was no need to keep it secret until one hour before.
What made it worse is that the call arrived at 7.45am, so early in the day that most newsrooms are still not functioning at full steam. This made it more difficult for journalists to be assigned to cover the event which, then, started 20 minutes late, at 9.05am.
We must point out – because this does not seem to be obvious to the Office of the Prime Minister – that the media persons covering the event have to drive to the venue and park their cars – both not easy practices these days, given the traffic (it was peak hour, too) and the limited parking places available. They have no chauffeurs to drop them off.
Is this the kind of respect that the OPM would like to show to the media?
Just to put everyone in the picture, each evening, at 7pm, media houses receive a notice from the DOI informing them of planned activities by the government for the following day. It is a practice that is most welcome by newsrooms as it gives them the opportunity to plan ahead, as news editors assign the next day’s duties from the night before.
When, last Sunday, this notice was duly received at 7pm, the planned government-MUT signing ceremony was not listed. The crucial word is “planned”, as this event was not something that came out of the blue. And yet the media was informed about it the evening before, but were told about it just an hour before the event was due to start.
We understand that the media has to be ready for the eventuality of emergency press calls – and we have had our share of those. But when something like last Monday’s event is on the diary, why isn’t the media informed the evening before?
We take the opportunity to mention another time when, last week, the media was not treated with respect. Journalists were called to a press conference at 9.45am for the launch of the shore-to-shop technology in Grand Harbour. The PM delivered his address but then went on a tour of the cruise-liner which lasted nearly three hours before he took questions from journalists, who were left waiting in the scorching July heat.
The media should be shown more respect.
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