By SERGIO GRECH
A key date in the history of journalism in our island is 1839. The British introduced for the first time the liberty of the press. Liberty of the press was achieved through the work of Mitrovich. The change of government in the mother country also helped to achieve it. For fairness sake one must remembered that that particular decade in Europe was characterised by the revolutionary spirit which had its genesis in France in 1789.
These two centuries saw several papers each of them advocating the cause of its publisher. Some were anti British. Some favoured the Italians. Some wanted a stronger papacy.
THE PROGRESS PRESS
The first newspaper to be published by the mentioned press was IL-BERQA. It was a daily paper but took a vacation on Sunday. The first issue was published on 28/5/1930.The last one was on 30/11/68. Three years later THE SUNDAY TIMES OF MALTA was published.For aperiod of time Mabel Strickland was its editor. In 1935 THE TIMES OF MALTA was created. Today THE TIMES is Malta's only daily. What dominated these newspapers was culture.Front pages were usally dominated by foreign news. The papers favoured British presence in the islands ana were to be considered as organs of the Strickland party.
THE UNION PRESS
The union print is a property of the GWU-Malta's largest trade unions. The union was founded by Reggie Miller. As time passed the Union print paopers carried across the message of the MLP headed at time by Duminku Mintoff. Miller himself was the editor of THE TORCH;it remained a bilingual up to 1959. Between the years 1958/67,the editor of IT-TORCA was John Attard Kingswell. Still in 1996, the paper carries the subtitle "indipendenti ta' kull nhar ta' hadd". November 1962 witnessed the birth of L-ORIZZONT a daily still existing today with the subtitle "indipendenti ta'kuljum". Another paper to be published by the mentioned press in the fifties was IS-SEBH edited by Joe Micallef Stfrace-a lawyer and ex-MLP deputy. It also published IL-HELSIEN which was registered twice in its history. Firstly it was issued as daily between 58 and67 and re-issued again between 1980-88. It was replaced later on by KULLHADD edited by Felix Agius and E. Bartolo (now a minister).
THE LUX PRESS
A very active press in postwar Mlata was LUX PRESS runned by is-sur Tonin-Anthony Micallef. It published the organs of the following parties-MALTA TAGHNA for the Partit Demokratiku Nazzjinalista led by H.ganado, and for the Nationalist Party IL-POPLU.The former party was born out of the latter. Dr.Fenech AdaMI-THE ex premier and now the leader of the oppostion-was the editor of IL-POPLU. Il-POPLU was published weekly. Both pages had 4 pages and costed 2d.(note that the Premier Sant was also an editor of the GWU's L-ORIZZONT).
THE CHURCH PRESS
In the eightennth century the church opposed the liberty press fearing criticism.By the second half of the same century the papers became a tool to fight the opponent.This century also witnessed a number of church papers. The first Catholic paper was LEHEN IS-SEWWA WHICH TOOK ACTIVE PART IN THE POLITICO-RELIGIOUS STRUGGLES OF THE THIRTIES AND THE SIXTIES. The LEHEN was published by Azzjoni Kattolika. Another paper was IL-HAJJA which boasted of "tirrispetta l-intelligenza tieghek". It was later replaced by IL-GENS.
THE NATIONALIST PRESS
The PN started to own a press of its own very latelty; ONLY ON THE EVE OF THE 1971 election. The first paper to publish was IN-NAZZJON TAGHNA boasting of being "indipendenti" but as in the case of the L-ORIZZONT it came to favour a particular party-of course the party which financed it! Before the elections of 1987 Eddie Fenech Adami was an editor of the mentioned daily. IL-MUMENT was started a year later. Its first editor was Michael Refalo (ex minister and member of the opposition).The present editor of the weekly is Victor Camillieri.
OTHERS
1989 saw the publication of a forthnight paper published by a newly born party founded by Abela and Mintoff safter their expulsion from the MLP. The party was called Alternattiva Demokratika and their paper L-ALTERNATTIVA.
Three years later another weekly in English was launched-THE MALTA INDEPENDENT owned by a group of businessmen. Still it hasn't managed to sell more than THE SUNDAY TIMES. The Standard Publications also publish THE MALTA BUSINESS WEEKLY edited by Rev. Noel Grima.
E-mail to Sergio Grech.