Maltese journalists and politics in Malta, 1918-1928 : a comparative study of some newspapers

Abstract

The newspapers give a good representation of the changes they were made after the World War, the way the newspapers affected the Maltese especially in the tragedy of the ‘Sette Giugno’, which this date continued to be remembered every year by the newspapers. The four newspapers the ‘Malta’, the ‘Daily Malta Chronicle’ and ‘Garrison Gazette’, ‘Malta Tagħna’ and the ‘Ħmar’, were published to guarantee that in Malta journalism was strong more than ever, because as newspapers they offered the politicians to write and to propose their propaganda during the elections. The four newspapers also struggled to maintain the language question dispute tougher than ever and also other matters like Church state conflicts. They also give a wide perspective of how the Maltese were using the self-government and how much the political debates were followed. Their opinions and idioms used throughout the article and the editorials show how the Maltese journalists in Maltese could express whatever they wanted also sometimes with words that seem to be outrageous and despicable. In the newspapers being part of an open political view, their main ideas and thoughts offered the journalist to share them with the reader, they kept the relation between the people and also like the Hmar which used to be read also in the bars, it offered a good leisure for the people especially because of the cartoons, they were published in it. It offered also a place for the Maltese language to be written and read. These newspapers also used to be sold outside the islands for the Maltese emigrants.