‘Shame On Them’: Edwin Vassallo Lays Into New Media Lobby And Labels It A ‘Cartel’
Former PN MP Edwin Vassallo has warned that a new media house group that includes PL and PN and that will lobby for government funding looks like a “cartel”.
In a scathing article on Simon Mercieca’s blog, Vassallo said that while he understands why independent media houses would form a lobby group to safeguard their interests from government interference, the presence of ONE and NET raises several questions.
“How can political parties in government ever legislate against the interests of their own media houses?” he questioned. “If anything, they will legislate in favour of them.”
“As Sandro Chetcuti once said, political parties are like supermarkets, but now the same media who were scandalised by what he said are doing the same thing and are all purchasing from the government.”
“They have gone from being competitors in the news market to sleeping in the same bed. Those who are constitutionally obliged to safeguard democracy have formed a cartel that they are calling a lobby group.”
“They have now become the greatest threat to democracy and free thought themselves. The media houses of the Times, MaltaToday, Independent, GWU, PL and PN agreed to come together to guarantee that they can make more money off the back of taxpayers.”
Vassallo claimed that the lobby group’s formation, bang in the middle of the festive period, was perfectly timed to minimise criticism and described the manoeuvre as “shameful”.
“This is the greatest attack on free thought in recent Maltese history,” he warned. “This could mean that the government and media will decide censorship-related matters among themselves to ensure people are only fed the news they want and that suits them.”
“If the government wants to censor the news, it no longer needs to destroy a printing press like it did in 1979. Now there is a single establishment that determines what news the people can read and listen to. Journalists should no longer say ‘Je suis Charlie“. Now they must say “Je suis le gouvernement’.”
What do you think of this new lobby group?
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