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. A few others tried to appeal to the working class.
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 a period 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 usually dominated by foreign news. The papers favoured British presence in the islands and 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 papers 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 Stafrace lawyer and former MLP deputy. It also published IL-HELSIEN which was registered twice in its history. Firstly it was issued as daily between 58 and 67 and re-issued again between 1980-88. It was replaced later on by KULLHADD edited by Felix Agius and E. Bartolo (now a prominent member of the MLP).
THE LUX PRESS
A very active press in postwar Malta was LUX PRESS run by Anthony Micallef, known as "is-sur Tonin". It published the organs of the following parties-MALTA TAGHNA for the Partit Demokratiku Nazzjonalista led by H. Ganado, and for the Nationalist Party IL-POPLU.The former party was born out of the latter. Dr. Eddie Fenech Adami -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 Eighteenth 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. The 20th Century witnessed a number of church papers. The first Catholic paper was LEHEN IS-SEWWA. The LEHEN was published by Azzjoni Kattolika. Another paper was IL-HAJJA which boasted of repected the intelligence of its readers. It was later replaced by the weekly 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.
OTHERS
1989 saw the publication of a forthnight paper published by a newly born party founded by Toni Abela and Wenzu Mintoff after 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. However it has launched its daily edition. The Standard Publications also publish THE MALTA BUSINESS WEEKLY edited by Anthony Manduca.
THE PEOPLE and THE PEOPLE ON SUNDAY had a very short history, spanning over just a couple of years between 1996 and 1998. Their tabloid style did not capture much public support and had to cease publication. The staff of the newspapers were employed by Network Publications who continued to publish THE BUSINESS TIMES every week. The same publishinh house started the MALTA TODAY in 1999, a weekly newspaper issued every Friday.
E-mail to Sergio Grech.