Excusities and all that

Maltastar

Excusities and all that!

Kurt Sansone (A bout of Excusities ` 03 Jan 2002) is right.` The Maltese public deserves better than the Istrina 2001 debacle and its aftermath.

To the nationalists it is a perfect ploy to shift attention from the real hard issues resulting from their mal-administration and have well meaning journalists like Sansone focus their criticism on the Opposition instead. For this purpose Peppi Azzopardi always comes handy.

But it is most unfair for Labour or Super One to be accused of boycott to the underlying causes of l-Istrina. Sansone is too young to have experienced the real nationalist boycotts of the first half of the 1980`s to understand what a boycott really is.

Has anyone heard Labour or Super One instigating anybody not to contribute or support the underlying causes of Istrina` And who would ever think that such boycott could work through ear whispering communications`

I made it clear before, at least a week before, that I did not intend to accept the offer to attend Istrina.` As head of Super One,` TVM are my main competitors and the presenters of Istrina are their cavallo di battaglia. Can anyone deny that they use Istrina to push their own commercial interest and gain popularity at the expense of Super One`

If whoever is responsible really wanted something on a national level they would have invited Super One as the most popular TV station in Malta with` the` most popular set of presenters to join in the preparation and presentation of the event. But the presenters wanted to ride on the back of the charity campaign to extend their popularity which they can translate into commercial revenues.

They expected Super One as the champion of TV audiences to play second fiddle to TVM and to Peppi Azzopardi. And then journalists like Sansone condemn us for being partisan in a national event. Sorry Kurt but it is not a national event.` It is a very partisan event meant to augment the popularity of Xarabank at the expense of Super One. Accepting to participate would be like Intel sending their microchip research as a Christmas present to Hynix, Samsung or ST Micro.

And Sansone can rest assured that we have good reason to feel betrayed by Xarabank. Firstly Xarabank is always somehow magically favoured by the MBA survey. How two surveys conducted on the same week by the same methodology agree broadly on all points of the research except on the Xarabank slot is a mystery which needs investigation. The MBA survey puts Xarabank as the top rated programme with a peak audience of 139000 whereas the Media warehouse survey puts Xarabank second to Super One`s Under Cover with an audience of less than 80,000. This gap is too wide to justify by statistical error.

Secondly I have been criticising Xarabank as unobjective in the choice of its subjects and gave a lists of topics which Xarabank never showed much inclination to investigate. One of them was the shameful manner in which Mid-Med Bank was privatised and the circumstantial evidence that something untoward happened as Mid-Med Bank changed name and colours to HSBC Malta.

Peppi came to see me last summer and explained that he might take up the hint and hold such a programme and asked me to take part. I not only agreed but in the most frank manner showed Peppi my concerns resulting from evidence of publicly available documents.

While Peppi was quick to change subjects of La Salle in less than 24 hours, . 4 months have not been enough to realise my suggestion in spite of promises to the contrary.

And there is a further point of principle.` Which national TV station supported by public funds and obliged to impartiality by the Broadcasting Act and the Constitution outsources its current affairs programme to a commercial organisation led by a very partial Lou Bondi who once had no qualms to literally demonise the Leader of the Opposition.

And to make it a complete farce Where`s Everybody say they would only publish their financial statements if the Labour Party gives a full account of its finances. The difference is that the Labour Party does give a full account of its finances through audited accounts read out at the annual general conference even though they send bill to no one and are no burden on the national coffers. Where`s Everybody on the contrary draw funds from the national coffers and give an account to no one.

Even from Istrina philanthropy Where`s Everybody give quite some oil to their commercial machine so much so that the Istrina prizes were presented during Xarabank.

Peppi made one sensible suggestion in offering to go to remove the Istrina controversy. I hope he will remember it next Christmas and insist on a truly national event with the co-participation of the likes of Alfred Zammit and Eileen Montesin who were recently voted the most popular male and female presenters in the Media Warehouse survey.

The Maltese public certainly deserves better!