Prior to the MEP elections held on June 8, 2024, the Maltese state broadcaster, TVM, aired an advert containing footage manipulated to support the agenda of a far-right MEP candidate.
The advert was produced by far-right party Imperium Europa. It features the party’s founder and leader, Norman Lowell, urging people to “open (their) eyes and protest” by voting for the party in the upcoming elections.
The advert takes a clip from an interview with local television personality Peppi Azzopardi, quoting him – with no context – saying ‘Norman Lowell kellu raġun’ (‘Norman Lowell was right’), making it seem as if Azzopardi was endorsing the candidate.
View the clip from the advert below:
Norman Lowell has been a notorious figure in Maltese politics for decades. He contested every MEP election since 2004, despite having been found guilty, in 2008, of inciting racial hatred. Amongst other things, Lowell called Auschwitz the ‘Disneyland of Poland’, vowed to ‘push back’ immigrants, and made derogatory arguments against women who prioritise their careers over ‘breeding’.
The clip is taken from an interview held between Azzopardi and local podcaster Jon Mallia which first aired in April 2024. In the original footage, Azzopardi can be seen saying: “Someone can say that Norman Lowell was right. It is frequently said. But whoever says it doesn’t know what they are saying, historically”, before going on to argue why Lowell’s predictions have been incorrect.
But the advert misleadingly cuts Azzopardi’s sentence short, only including the phrase “Norman Lowell was right” and editing the rest of Azzopardi’s sentence out.
View the original interview below:
Azzopardi has been a vocal critic of Lowell’s over the years, harshly criticising his racist rhetoric and frequently adopting public positions that run counter to Lowell’s. He has even expressed his readiness to open his home to stranded migrants.
In a video posted on Facebook, Azzopardi said that the clip of himself was taken from an interview in which he stated how some people might wrongly back Lowell. He stressed that he would never agree with him.
The manipulation appears to have worked on some people. Azzopardi said that several people contacted him after seeing Lowell’s advert, expressing disbelief that he was endorsing him.
In response to questions by the media regarding the advert, the Malta Broadcasting Authority – which is responsible for monitoring and regulating all radio and television broadcasts originating from the Maltese islands – stated that it does not investigate the content of political party adverts.
Twisting facts and manipulating and recontextualising content is nothing new to political advertising, particularly in Malta. But this does not mean that such fact-twisting adverts are not believed; they are actually specifically intended to mislead.
Airing adverts such as the one in question effectively – even if unintentionally – enables misinformation.
Lowell went on to garner 6,669 first count votes in Malta’s MEP elections, failing to get elected for the fifth consecutive time.
How to safeguard against this kind of misinformation: Tools for image and video verification do exist (the InVID Verification Plugin, for example), though sometimes common sense is the best ‘tool’.
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Originally published here.
