د . إAEDSRر . س

Artist Calls Out ONE For Not Reporting Anything About His Joseph Muscat Castille Portrait

Article Featured Image

Artist Patrick Dalli has called out the Labour Party’s media house ONE for not reporting anything about his portrait of former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat which is now hanging in Castille.

“A portrait of a former PL Prime Minister in Castille isn’t news value for ONE’s newsroom,” Dalli said in a brief Facebook post. “It would have been [news value] for his predecessor. Give us a break… shame on you if you can even feel shame.”

Dalli’s painted portrait of Muscat was recently hung inside Castille’s cabinet room, alongside other portraits of other former Prime Ministers.

However, unlike other Prime Ministers, the hanging up of Muscat’s portrait had not been announced publicly, and was only revealed today after journalists spotted it during a recent visit to the cabinet room as Prime Minister Robert Abela met Libya’s Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbiebah.

ONE TV’s executive chairman Jason Micallef hailed the portrait as one of the best portraits in the Cabinet room and criticised the media for pointing out that it wasn’t publicly announced.

“It got to the media’s head, confused, rash, and full of hidden and not so hidden agendas, as they are. They asked with great astonishment why it was hung secretly, why there wasn’t a ceremony and why they only found out about it after they were invited to a press conference.”

“What poor media we have, reporting stupid things. They’re obsessed with Joseph Muscat as they were obsessed with Dom Mintoff and Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, how they demonised Alfred Sant and how they’ll unfortunately do the same to Robert Abela. Some things never change.”

“The same thing happens to every PL leader and Prime Minister, no matter who they are, and it’s never going to change. In particular Joseph Muscat, who they could never defeat, no matter how much they threw at him.”

However, he didn’t explain why his own media house didn’t report anything about it.

This isn’t the first time ONE TV ignored news items related to Muscat in recent weeks. 

After Muscat was interviewed by Sunday Times of Malta, his first interview with an independent media house in years, ONE didn’t report anything about it on its news portal and glossed over it during its newspaper analysis show.

Artist Patrick Dalli is the father of Luke Dalli, a close confidante of Muscat’s, often seen by his side throughout his tenure leading the country, and the husband of EU commissioner Helena Dalli.

Cover photo: Left: Patrick Dalli’s portrait of Joseph Muscat, Right: ONE TV executive chairman Jason Micallef

Why do you think ONE chose not to report the news of Muscat’s portrait? 

READ NEXT: High-Profile Lawyer Confirms Being Raided By Police Regarding Files Related To VGH

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]

You may also love

View All