Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/674824
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 4 MAY 2016 10 Opinion T he Alitalia/Etihad takeover of the management and 49% of the shares of Air Malta may indeed be the only way to turnaround the national airline. It's a pity that the sheer irresponsibility of one administration after another has led to what looks like the inevitable, whether anyone agrees or not. When someone is lined up in front of a firing squad there aren't many choices to make – the Etihad/Alitalia deal may indeed be the King's stay of execution. In 2011, a former Air Malta director, Michael Mallia, gave a brief history of how Air Malta was used and abused by Labour and Nationalist governments. As with many state owned companies Air Malta was used as a vote buying machine, through jobs for the blue-eyed boys and girls. According to Mallia in the run-up to the 1987 election Labour ministers stuffed in an additional 250 'totally unrequired ' employees. A small airline ending up with 1,420 employees. Mallia said that 700 employees would have been enough. If he is right, it just goes to show the disgusting level of the jobs-for- votes racket. Some may think that the story stopped there. Wrong. In 1992 it was time to dispense favours again it seems – the Nationalists keeping up with... no, not the neighbours, but with Labour! Another 300 jobs were given as presents. During Minister Josef Bonnici 's term, during which Louis Grech was chairman (today deputy prime minister) the Air Malta workforce rose to over 2,000 employees, more than double the number of employees an airline with tens of aircraft needed. In 2011, 500 employees took early retirement or left voluntarily. It seems that it was all too little too late. The airline continued struggling, and shed more employees, with today's being around 1,000. What will Etihad 's Alitalia want from its investment? What is sure is that a shareholder with such a big stake in the company will want a decent return on investment, and quickly. Probably the government will have to accept a downsizing exercise. Alitalia had to cut 2,200 jobs from its 14,000 workforce to entice Etihad to buy 49% of the airline's shares. The hardworking employees who find themselves pushed out know who they have to thank: those of their colleagues, who because of their connections and because of the electoral district they happened to live in, sold their vote. But above all they should realise that Air Malta has been brought to its knees by a corrupt political system of favours-for-votes and rampant clientelism. Ralph Cassar is secretary-general of Alternattiva Demokratika and Attard local councillor Ruining Air Malta to win elections Media freedom in Europe: No time for complacency Ralph Cassar Gunther Oettinger A lbert Camus once said: "A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad." I believe this is even more relevant in the age of digital media. The recent legislative proposals on public media service as well as the recent debate about the limits of sat- ire both in the EU and Turkey serve as a stark reminder that the freedom and independence of the media and free- dom of speech are not set in stone but are contested. If we are to protect our own precious liberties and maintain our ability to serve as a beacon for our own neighbourhood and the world, we must thus remain vigilant. As Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, also in charge of media, I am committed to doing whatever it takes to make sure that these basic principles are re- spected. I am willing to engage in a dialogue and to convey the message how important media freedoms are for our democracies, while recalling that any candidate country wishing to join the EU needs to respect the highest stand- ards of press freedom. The independence of regulatory authorities in the audio- visual field is also a very important issue. If these watch- dogs are truly independent from the governments, they can play their role the best: ensure that TV broadcasters respect all rules protecting the interest of the viewers, be it children's protection from very violent films, a pluralistic TV landscape or limits to advertising. The upcoming revision of the EU Audiovisual Media Services Directive is an opportunity to strengthen the in- dependence requirements for media regulators, and it is my intention to use it. However, not every problem can be solved by legislation. The initiatives of NGOs that are active in this field are cru- cial for raising awareness and providing assistance to jour- nalists. We are therefore also providing financial support to independent projects that monitor and reinforce media freedom and pluralism. One of these projects is the Media Pluralism Monitor, an independent tool used by the European University Insti- tute's Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom in Florence. It shows that no EU Member State is immune to risks threatening media pluralism. More concretely, there are risks around: revealed media concentration, lack of political independence, insufficient access to information and a lack of adequate media literacy policy. These risks have been confirmed by a very high number of alerts that have been received on the independent Map- ping Media Freedom platform, also supported by us. More than a third of the incidents reported on this online tool refer to harassment against journalists. Other incidents which have been registered are related to the imprison- ment or detention of journalists, laying off staff, violent attacks, as well as cases when journalistic work has been censored. The five countries with the most verified reports are Turkey, Italy, Hungary, France and Croatia. Last year, we have also funded the establishment of the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), based in Leipzig, to address media freedom violations in EU member states and beyond, including providing legal support to journalists under threat. One of my conclusions from all this is that we need more debate on the issue of media freedom. That is why I am pleased that the Commission's First Vice President, Frans Timmermans agreed to dedicate the annual EU Colloqui- um of Fundamental Rights in November this year to media pluralism and democracy. Günther H. Oettinger, Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society