Media accessibility and the Maltese extreme-right

Abstract

This dissertation analyses the media accessibility available to the Maltese Extreme-Right. Both the local media realm and the political arena are dominated by two major political parties. Because of this situation, any new political movement has to adapt to a hostile environment. This setting also affects the local Extreme-Right movements. After identifying the movements forming part of the Extreme-Right within the local context, this dissertation investigates why politicians consider all available media as indispensable tools where the packaging of politics is concerned. Even though the onset of pluralism, in the 1990s, introduced a growing number of audio-/visual means, these have been monopolised by the key players in the field, namely mainstream political parties, the State, business organisations and the Church. This dissertation shows how mainstream political parties have succeeded in hogging media access, with the help of media gatekeepers, thus helping to promote and perpetuate a bi-partisan political scenario. For the purposes of this research, semi-structured interviews were conducted with media gatekeepers together with representatives of Extreme-Right parties and pressure groups. Use was also made of media texts to corroborate upon some of the issues raised during these interviews, illustrate a point or contradict a statement made. This dissertation proposes a model of media accessibility which is affected by media ownership, the 'rules of the game', the ideology upheld by the political party seeking media access, and the financial resources at its disposition. This study demonstrates that funds enable political parties to buy media access, whatever their political ideology. Whereas the media gatekeepers argued that they were not willing to promote chauvinistic sentiments to explicate why Extreme-Right parties were not given media coverage, the textual analysis demonstrates that hate speech is rampant in the local media. Xenophobic sentiments are allowed on the local media as long as the message does not derive from Extreme-Right exponents. This makes one question whether the Extreme Right is not given media coverage from the fear of destabilising the bi-polar status-quo, rather than the eradication of hate speech.