Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1494707
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 27 MARCH 2022 OPINION 3 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 MARCH 2023 Mikiel Galea – the latter two awarded prizes for excellence. The regrets are many. In 2014, when MaltaToday broke the Café Premier story, the first evidence of Jo- seph Muscat and Keith Schembri's insidious rot was laid before us. I distinctly remember Schembri, who called about the story, telling me the administration was simply cutting cumbersome bureaucratic corners. "And I would do it again," he said – a red flag that I thought was only big talk. But then Panama, 17 Black and the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia unearthed a dark, rotten, centre of hideousness that should repre- sent all that Malta strives against. MaltaToday was the first to harness the rapid digital evolution of social media during the divorce referen- dum of 2011 with the first live-blogs, the embedding of the social media register in its reports, and many other innovations. In reality, the technology evolved faster than the spirit of the newspaper itself, a trade I believe is rooted in stronger values than the emotional hyper- bole of our smartphone-driven world. But there is one, undying part of MaltaToday's values and ethos – the power to reflect the justified anger of people who want decency and fairness in public life. That means having the will to be the heretic in a room of parroting yea-sayers and log-rollers. When it be- comes harder to attract a news-reading public whose attention is divided across so much diverse online me- dia, meeting and listening to people restores my faith in what we do. • • • Much as this kind of sensitivity is needed, then – ed- itors and journalists of the future – be ready to part ways with the "great English blight" of charm, a most dangerous quality for a newspaper. For it only seeks to please, shows deference to and apologises for the estab- lishment, reveres the shallow, and patronises capricious desires in the name of popularity. Charm conforms. This is the recognisable trait in the latest crop of Mal- ta's digital-only media, driven by algorithms designed to simply create profit for advertisers and prop up "in- fluencers" who serve advertisers. Emotional attention, not the imparting of ideas, seems to be the driving force of this phenomenon. The Maltese world of newspapers is today in competition with the short attention spans of a reading public mollified by entertainment – viral videos, content dumps, and simpering selfies from pol- iticians. Caution however, for the high-minded sorts who berate the Maltese reader's deficit of "critical think- ing": frankly, it can be a tired and overrefined quality of thinking, one that expects a class of voter should not be watching football on Sunday when there is so much outrage to be had over political gluttony and partisan misbehaviour. True, Malta is plagued by a persistent sense of apathy on issues that affect us as a community, a sense of individualism that dislikes communitarian outrage and action. But a newspaper is not a political party. Take the news and the ideas; hopefully they serve our democra- cy in the moment of truth (you can line the birdcage with expensive newsprint the day after...) Many are the armchair critics driven only by prejudice, some who once sat comfortably with power, deriding critics as buffoons, or radicals and pro-choice voices as being fit for the madhouse, dubbing demands for resignations as just 'envy'. When the educated berate the 'uneducated', or the cultured are shocked by the 'uncultured', and old money and privilege revile the new aspirants whose democratic choices are at odds with theirs, maybe it is towards them that we should be critical – understand- ing where they come from, and from which altar they preach. • • • I am running way above my allotted space. I salute Saviour Balzan, the founder of this title and a great newspaperman in his own right, whose generosity with his staff is unknown to many; I thank Roger Degiorgio. I salute James Debono, the beating heart of MaltaTo- day – may his influence spread further. I salute Karl Azzopardi and Kurt Sansone, who take the reins of the newsroom and whom I now serve. I salute the memory of Julian Manduca. But thank you, mostly, to MaltaToday's readers. Our loyalty is always to you.