How ethical is ethical?

If Joe Mizzi were not Joe Mizzi but perhaps a Jason Micallef (or, who knows, an Arnold Cassola), there is little doubt in my mind that we would have taken the person to the cleaners.

There are – and be sure to always remember this – two weights and two measures in Malta. In other times, it was North and South, black or white, tall or short, thin or fat.  In Malta, it is whether you are a diehard Nationalist or not.

The ethics commission of the IGM has issued a case of ‘grave censure’ against Julia Farrugia, the editor of Illum, for doing what all journalists should have done. Julia Farrugia did the right thing.

I am not surprised at the ethics commission’s ruling. I warned Julia, and she knows my views on the IGM and the ethics commission. I cannot accept that the IGM continues to be run by a bunch of press consultants and ministerial aides.

The question to ask is very simple. Was the footage showing Joe Mizzi falling to the ground as if he were very drunk justified or not?

Yes it was, because Joe Mizzi was on official duty representing Malta on one of our more illustrious missions abroad – the Eurovision Song Contest, a contest during which we repeatedly make fools of ourselves on stage… apart from backstage.

Mizzi, who was appointed to PBS together with party boy Anton Attard, is on the long list of political appointees who run State TV, and have done little or nothing to bring it in line with what is expected from a national broadcaster in a democratic country.

It is a pity that before having to resign, Mizzi managed to do exactly what many of his predecessors managed to do at PBS. Un bel niente.

To ensure that PBS is the station we always feared it to be, Natalino Fenech made sure that the ethics commission’s decision was presented to the public on the 8 o’clock news as the worst calamity since Jack the Ripper roamed the streets of London. It is rather expected.

Anyone who knows Fenech will not be surprised.  Here is a man who has such a chip on his shoulder that nobody can really understand him. Since I have known him from his days in the MOS (now Birdlife Malta) he has always been a spiteful man, and has always struck me as someone who bore resentment for others in the same profession.

Of course, the fact that Fenech can do whatever he likes says a lot about Anton Attard, the man who is the CEO. News has it that Mr Attard is none too happy with Natalino, but then again, I cannot see any changes in the news set up. Indeed, the closer we get to the election, the more I see PBS news resembling a propaganda station committed to presenting government and its representatives as future perfect and anyone else as past tense.

I am quite pleased that those in the ethics commission who sat down and deliberated did so without thinking back to the time when they played the part of editors.

I was most intrigued at Lawrence Grech, the former editor of the Sunday Times.  He stood on the ethics commission and kicked off by sowing reasonable doubt about the intentions behind the reportage. He was instrumental in talking about the motive behind the story.

He should have known better. When he was editor of The Sunday Times, he was the first one to carry so many juicy stories fed from Castille that ripped apart so many characters who were government targets. 

I could name a few, but I will leave him with only one name (and I think one will suffice for the moment): it was the story of Brigadier Calleja!

The insinuations in the Joe Mizzi case from the very start gave the impression that Julia Farrugia had purposely trailed Joe Mizzi and led him into a trap.

It was Joe Mizzi who put himself in that position.

And if anyone filmed him, it was only because Joe Mizzi collapsed in a public place in front of so many journalists and public personalities.

Well, those who know Joe Mizzi will tell you that Mr Mizzi cannot handle much drink, and some people who combine drink with stress come up with a devastating concoction.

The funniest bit of evidence given came when Mizzi recounted visiting Dr Frank Portelli days after the incident, and Dr Portelli surprisingly coming up with a medical opinion.

That left me incredulous. 

The Press Ethics Commission says questioning Mizzi over whether his public role was tenable formed basis of ‘character assassination’.

The Commission found there was no breach of privacy in the airing of footage that caught the former PBS chairman Joe Mizzi collapsing to the floor, at a Eurovision after-party in Dusseldorf.

But the same commission declared that there was unethical behaviour and character assassination, claiming that the story aimed at attacking Mizzi in his public role as PBS chairman by attacking his reputation and not investigating the case enough.

So bloody what? I say.

Are we saying that asking Joe Mizzi whether or not his position was still tenable given what happened… is wrong?

Unbelievable. And then, just yesterday Antonia Micallef – a PBS journalist, operating under Fenech’s instructions – asked Julia Farrugia whether she felt that her position as deputy Chairman of the IGM was still tenable.

Incredible.

And as if that weren’t bad enough – the one sided reportage of PBS goes on unabated because nobody has the balls to tell Fenech to put down the temperature.

No one, not even CEO Anton Attard. But then, what should we expect from Mr Attard?

And what better way to do that, than to guarantee that PBS retains its role as a gatekeeper?

The opinion featured in MaltaToday newspaper edition on Wednesday, 24 August