Truth to power

Journalism needs to live up to its mission not just talk about it

Ask any journalist about what they do in their job and they will say something along the lines of “speak truth to power”, “tell stories powerful people don’t want told” or “expose wrongdoing”. In truth, these are often exaggerated clams.

Not in Malta.

This week I had the privilege of speaking on a panel at Times of Malta’s 90th anniversary conference and reflected that it is a remarkable achievement for them to have reached such an august age. They operate in an environment that over the years has shown real hostility to an independent media.

In 1979, a group of thugs from the ruling party forced their way into the newsroom shouting “Let’s go for the Times” and set fire to the building as revenge for the paper’s coverage of government misdeeds. Happily, everyone escaped with their lives and the paper came out the next morning. But “Black Monday” is remembered even by those who weren’t born.

Eight years ago, the freelance journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s investigations into corruption were finally stopped by the car bomb that killed her. She had worked for the Times and the team there still feel her loss deeply.

These are merely the most high-profile cases in what feels like an eternal struggle for the media in Malta. It made the topic of our panel – ”Can journalism survive the attack on the truth?” – feel all the more urgent and visceral.

We discussed the issues that will be familiar to many of you: how does institutional journalism gain attention in a social-media-dominated world? How does it connect with younger audiences? How can it convince people to pay in a world in which they’ve been accustomed to getting news for free? What does AI mean for journalism and journalists?

To their credit, the Times journalists on the panel were eminently practical in their assessment of these questions. They know that to secure their mission they need to secure their business. (Full disclosure: Times of Malta are clients of HBM Advisory.)

As an outsider it felt more important that we find the right answers when sitting in Valletta than they have done with the viewpoint of points further west. But maybe I – and we – are being complacent. The rise of authoritarian-style tactics in places we never expected them, with governments speaking power to truth, means it's essential that we build a sustainable and relevant future for journalism.

From a UK perspective, I feel that to do this we need to take our role more seriously. A lot of what comes out of Fleet Street is often frivolous or over-hyped. Look at the amount of energy expended this week on a relatively minor breach of rules relating to a minister’s house move. Was that really the most egregious tax “evasion” in the country right now? Was that truly the best use of journalists’ time?

The newspaper editors will be pleased they got their “scalp” after the minister resigned, but does this help in the long run? I’m not so sure.

Many people will see this as a story puffed up by the press to suit its own agenda. And that will not make them allies if the “attack on truth” gets more serious.