It’s very easy to profess a populist fiscal policy and go on the public broadcaster to spread your propaganda without being challenged about it, if you are rigging the press and the media ecosystem to your advantage.
Last week, the Finance Minister gave an interviewing to the ingratiating propagandist Saviour Balzan on the public broadcaster. The interview quickly degenerated into a monologue by the Finance Minister with Balzan cracking jokes with the Minister instead of asking pertinent question and challenging the Minister on his claims.
Today, Saviour Balzan continued his publicly-funded propaganda campaign in support of the Minister with an article praising him and his policies by JP Fabri. This is a very clear case in which the government is flagrantly violating the EU’s Media Freedom Act. Apart from the fact that MaltaToday depends on government funding, it publishes propaganda pieces for the Labour government disguised as pseudo-opinion pieces by independent experts.
JP Fabri is actually a consultant to the Finance Minister and the Prime Minister himself. He has been appointed to several consultancy posts including at the OPM and the Central Bank and he is currently also Country Director for Malta at the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council. MaltaToday does not disclose these details.
This is also why we can’t have a genuine and open discussion about our country’s finances while the Minister remains unchallenged on his economic projections and positions. We have consistently been the only press outlet which has provided very consistent analytical information on Malta’s public finances, publishing all kinds of data and scenarios including the good, the bad and ugly.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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