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» Circle Interviews » MORE THAN WORDS – CAROLINE MUSCATMORE THAN WORDS – CAROLINE MUSCAT
She made the headlines as a Greenpeace activist when she climbed up the hospital incinerator to raise awareness about its hazards. 10 years later, Sandra Aquilina meets Caroline Muscat and finds that her determination and capacity for action remain unchanged
On the morning of 13 July 2001, 27-year-old Caroline Muscat, together with three other Greenpeace activists climbed up St Luke’s Hospital chimney and unravelled a banner with the word “Stop”. The peaceful protest made the headlines when the four activists were arrested and received a conditional discharge.
Throughout, they maintained that the protest was held in an attempt to voice concern and notify the public about the hazards created by the hospital’s incinerator.
10 years later, Caroline looks composed, mature and self-assured. She has since left Greenpeace activism for the media world – she is a respected and intelligent journalist and blogger – but although her tactics might have morphed, her determination and capacity for action appear unchanged.
“Whether you’re a journalist or an activist – the focus to me has always remained the same. The problems we were discussing two decades ago are the same problems we’re discussing today. Water, waste management, energy, fisheries, the overall picture has not changed – these are critical issues that the nation needs to address.”
Caroline’s diagnosis is simple. In Malta, the political parties put their interests before those of the nation. Examples are everywhere, she says. Whether it’s boreholes, the fight for bluefin tuna or her pet topic – hunting – government gives in to inaction because of powerful interests. The result, she says, is that nothing ever changes.
Take the issue with the MEP campaign expenditure, for instance – a story she worked on for 10 solid weeks. “Most candidates had broken the law – yet nobody was held to account.” Rather than action being taken, in a rare show of solidarity the parties joined forces and committed to revising a law that was embarrassing them both. “Neither the police commissioner nor the AG chose to investigate. What kind of message are we giving out?” She shrugs her shoulders.
A large part of the problem, she points out, lies with the media. I squirm uncomfortably in my seat. “We have a very peculiar situation in this country – where public life is dominated by the political parties and the Church. The media’s role is the seeking of truth and the holding of power to account.
But without a questioning and investigating media, those in power state what they want without scrutiny or question. This is very bad news for democracy.” With characteristic directness, she points out the problems. The Communications course at University is failing to produce good journalists; there is a lack of investigative journalism; the industry is plagued by a scarcity of resources and huge pressures so that the media is entertaining more than informing.
Following Arianna Huffington, she dismisses the need for “balance” in journalism – in favour of truth. “In journalistic terms, balance is the enemy of truth,” Huffington had said in an interview. Caroline nods approvingly. “A journalist’s duty is to report the truth – not to make sure that all sides are quoted equally.”
More often than not, this is just another way of giving in to pressure, she points out. And journalists of course do come under immense pressure to tow the official line. Even when they don’t, they are not taken seriously, with government paying lip service or ignoring them altogether. “Of course there are individual journalists who are trying to do a good job, but they stand alone – and it can become quite a dirty business.”
She points to the fairly widespread practice whereby a minister or spokesman will handpick a particular journalist – often sympathetic to the party – to divulge a story. Usually this is done only a few hours before a public statement, putting the media company under immense pressure to be the first to publish. “It’s a very dangerous situation.”
This creates a scenario where much is taken at face value. Take the issue of (in)equality,for instance. “On every EU statistic related to gender, Malta is scraping the bottom.”
She reels off the statistics. “We have the lowest participation rate of women in parliament, close to 60 per cent of women are unemployed – although we have a high rate of female graduates. One in four women is a victim of domestic violence.”
In an effort to raise awareness about the latter, government has recently launched a publicity campaign against domestic violence. On the face of it, this is of course good news. “But has it actually beefed up its resources to address the problem? Or is it just out there making noise?”
She gives another example. In recent months, government issued an official statement that 8,000 women benefited from tax refunds when they returned to work.
“The media reported it blindly – never asking what kind of jobs these women had returned to and avoiding a number of questions.” Even worse, the statement had already been previously reported.
Or the new environment policy. “We’ve had countless reports, all launched with a lot of pomp. This is just another policy document that adopts all the right jargon but avoids setting concrete targets. We need action plans and targets and people who can be held responsible if they are not achieved. Certain words have become catchphrases. We’re just buying time.”
The report, she says, deals in “greenwash” – a term that came up in her MA dissertation on “Activism and democracy in the age of spin”. “This is when goverments and companies adopt the terminology merely to deflect criticism. So a company, for instance, will change its logo – but will still spend less on cleaning up its environmental act than what it spends on advertising. It’s all image – when in fact it’s business as usual.”
With such a stance, perhaps it was inevitable that she should be quickly disillusioned by the traditional media scene. “All in all, the ideal that I looked for was crushed when I entered the scene.”
Once again she had to change tactics. This time she set up her own blog – My Voice – where she writes about the issues that matter to her – particularly social justice, the environment and women.
“I post when I have something to say. But on my blog I can talk about issues without the boundaries I usually feel in the traditional media.”
Particularly on women issues, the blog has garnered a strong response by women who have even decided to set up a new movement. Caroline smiles proudly. “The message is that you need to take action if you feel strongly about something,” she says.
“The new women’s movement is one direct positive outcome.” In fact, in the general gloom, some rays of hope shine through. “The NGOs – what has been achieved in this country has mainly been achieved through the NGOs. My hope lies there.”
Another is citizen journalism which, “considering how strongly the media has let its citizens down is a positive development.”
Writers now have open access to each other – without filtering and editing. “The criticism of inaction is a necessary part of democracy – not just voting once every five years. The challenge is to look at how we can merge the two different scenes, how best to serve the public.” As with traditional media, “the question to ask is – whose interest it is serving, that is the bottom line.”
But so much more remains to be done, she says. One development she would really like to see is greater participation by women in the higher ranks. “Women work against the odds in this country. Our society is not conducive to women becoming achievers.” Despite Malta signing CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women), entrenched stereotypes remain. “We keep talking about family values – when what government should really be doing is providing support structures, such as more childcare centres. A woman should not have to choose between a career and a family.”
These days she is the co-founder of East to West Communications, a communications company that advises organisations on developing and implementing environmental, social, cultural or educational projects. The company is a hub of experts based in Malta, Istanbul, Berlin and the UK and has helped a number of organisations access grants for projects that have a direct positive contribution to society.
The job enables her to travel a lot which helps her keep her sanity, she smiles. “Malta can get suffocating sometimes.” Still, when she first started out, she joined Greenpeace “because of a desire to achieve something meaningful.” Nowadays she has abandoned direct activism for writing – but the two are not a contradiction “as long as honesty is your guiding principle.”
Is she then a different person from the one who climbed up the incinerator 10 years ago to unravel a banner? She does not hesitate a second. “I would do it again.” She pauses. “When I look at my past I still see that I am moving forward. But through the years I have built up on my knowledge and experience.” She smiles wryly. “Perhaps that’s the only thing that’s changed.”
Photography by Alan Carville
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Posted by Sandra Aquilina on October 2, 2011. Filed under Circle Interviews.
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