Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/604914
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 22 NOVEMBER 2015 11 News News ARTICLE 42.7 of the EU Treaty states that if a member state is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other states are obliged to offer "aid and assistance by all the means in their power, in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. This shall not prejudice the specific character of the security and defence policy of certain Member States. "Commitments and cooperation in this area shall be consistent with commitments under the North At- lantic Treaty Organisation, which, for those States which are mem- bers of it, remains the foundation of their collective defence and the forum for its implementation." Jacques Rene Zammit, a lawyer specialised in EU law, declares out- right that the clause does not ex- pressly mean a sure route to war. "It won't mean that we will have AFM troops patrolling the Champs Elysees any time soon. The em- phasis in article 42(7) is on aid and assistance and, more specifically, on the fact that the 'security and defence policy' of certain member states should not be prejudiced." This means two things, Zammit says. The first is France has to ne- gotiate individually with any other member state "and crucially with- out the need to use any of the EU institutions, any temporary form of aid and assistance." "Each member state is responsible for determining its contribution on the basis of what they deem to be necessary, which does not necessar- ily mean the deployment of military assets," he says. Secondly, and more importantly in the eyes of many in Malta, Zam- mit says the fact that the security and defence policy of certain mem- ber states is clearly invoked is a di- rect reference to the 'neutral' status of states such as Ireland, Austria and Finland – to give an example of some others. "Notwithstanding any interpreta- tion of military intervention that might be given by states dealing un- der this article, this obligation stops when the security and defence pol- icy of certain States does not allow it. The second paragraph referring to NATO commitments is a further reinforcement of this distinction." In a nutshell, Zammit is dispelling any fanciful notion that Malta is "at war" because France has said so by invoking article 42(7) of the TEU. "Modern politicians of the Hol- lande mould have a tendency to slip quickly into the language of war once a terrorist attack takes place. This 'tradition' is new to this cen- tury ever since George W. Bush declared war on Al-Qaeda. Unlike the 1970s and 1980s, when a terror- ist bomb attack or shooting never really translated into a casus belli, the political psyche of the post 9/11 words seems to require such heavy handed references and we are liv- ing in an age where France will now even try to provoke the UN to declare a war on a state whose existence nobody beyond the self- declared caliphate acknowledges." Then there is the old chestnut that is how to frame Malta's con- stitutional neutrality, the expressly stated equidistance from Cold War powers USA and the Soviet Union that has never been updated since 1986. "The significance of such clauses dwindles into nothing when one considers that they were intended to deal with a specific bat- tle between superpowers – a battle that no longer exists – and that in any case they would be invoked in case of a war between states, and not neutrality in the face of the war on ter- rorism," Zammit says. So it is yet to be seen what Joseph Muscat will bring to the table in the fight against Islamic State, and whether – as hinted in an early statement – the Mal- tese government will use its constitutional neutrality to sit out on this engage- ment. "I am not advocating par- ticipation by Malta in mili- tary activity. But Malta's attitude towards security and its contribution to en- suring that the borders of the European Union are impervious to terrorists leaves much to be desired. From the Al- gerian visa scandal to the thousands of Libyan residence permits… all this transforms Malta into one big Trojan horse for entry into the EU. These are ample examples as to how Malta's contribution to the war on terror could be vastly improved." Does neutrality stop Malta from fighting ISIS? On Friday, the United Nations' Security Council unanimously passed a counterterrorism resolution authorising military force against Islamic State and al-Nusra Front. The resolution introduced by France calls on the international community to mobilize and organize efforts against the global threat posed by terrorism, to block the flow of foreign fighters and to crack down on terrorist finances. French President François Hollande will visit the US and Russia this week in a diplomatic offensive to unite world powers in a campaign against Islamic State. France wiill also intensify its military strikes against Islamic State by at least threefold, with the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle giving it a wider striking capability. Security Council resolution NO sooner had the Paris attacks of 13 November rocked the news headlines, than a sizeable number of indignant voices complained that similar – and recent – attacks away from European soil failed to generate the same amount of attention, both from traditional and social media. In fact, an attack by the same group of Islamic ex- tremists who coordinated the deadly attack on Paris also took place in Beirut just a day prior, as two suicide bombers detonated explosives in Bourj el-Barajneh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, killing between 37 and 43 people. As has been pointed out since, the media did in fact cover this event – along with many others like it – but it would be a stretch to assume that they got equivalent play in the popular sphere as the Paris attacks did. Is this a question of skewed perspectives, or just a matter of proximity – geographical or otherwise? In comments to Mal- taToday, Beirut-based journal- ist Ana Maria Luca said that it's a mixture of both. But it's also much more, and it's precisely be- cause the situation is so delicate and complex that we need to pay so much attention. "I feel it's a bit complacent to say that, 'we were covering it, you just didn't read it'," Maria Luca, who writes for NOW English, said. "I'm sure there are outlets that cover the Middle East and Africa, but they are very few. The main- stream channels don't highlight them enough. It is also a question of what you report and how much interest your editors have in your sto- ries. If they think in terms of proximity, then the cause is lost." Maria Luca insists that a massive paradigm shift needs to happen in order for the media to start responding to these varied contemporary realities in a 'healthier' fash- ion. For one – and back to the issue of proximity – we need to understand that nowadays, 'proximity' does not just equal geographical nearness. "I think it's a matter of perceived cultural distance. It happened before: the reaction of the EU leaders and the EU people towards the Ukraine crisis and, respec- tively, the Syrian crisis. The distance from Brussels to Kiev or to Damascus is quite similar. But Ukraine is culturally closer." Maria Luca believes that lending more credence to this cultural distance is precisely what fans the flames of the nascent far right in Europe. And in a similar way, failure to take on a broader perspective helps to reinforce certain damaging stereotypes. An issue which also – indirectly – made waves in Malta is a case in point. "Initially, after the Egyptian and Syrian passports were found in Paris there was a huge anti-immigration hysteria across Western mainstream media. I can say people in Beirut were quite baffled, because they know how easy it is to get a fake Syrian passport. But no one really listens to them. It is frustrating." Maria Luca believes that the way forward would be for the media to do more in-depth reportage and not just "dry news" in the case of these events, because more often than not Islam- ic extremism arises from specific cultural contexts whose roots we would be better off for understand- ing, "because this is where the answers are". While claiming that Islamic extremism isn't the dominant ideology of the Middle East, Maria Luca warns that it's gaining ground – "not because of its principles but because it gives disenfranchised people a platform to feel empowered, where they can assert their identity and where they feel they have the soli- darity of others like them. "Some organizations capitalize on that. These are the stories we should tell the world; we need to look at the real why and the real how. And we need to show the people more than we show the monsters." This edges it all closer to her primary point: that the media needs to work harder to get at, and show the real human core behind these stories. This also means reporting on the healing process some of these com- munities go through. "I think we should write more about people, tell their stories more, go in-depth. That's how you shake stere- otypes and you bring people closer. There is also a lack of restorative narrative in journalism today. Journal- ists rarely follow up on what happens after the event. There is always a story of recovery, of readjustment." treljic@mediatoday.com.mt Beirut-based journalist ANA MARIA LUCA tells Teodor Reljic a change in perspective is of utmost importance in the international media narrative as terrorist attacks continue apparently unabated 'Show the people. Not just the monsters' 'People in Beirut were quite baffled at the anti- immigration wave regarding fake passports: we know how easy it is to fake them'