MLP accuses PBS editorial board of pro-government bias

The Malta Labour Party has launched an attack on the editorial board of Public Broadcasting Services, accusing board chairman Fr Joe Borg of being responsible for PBS's failure to honour its constitutional obligations "even if this is happening against the will of Archbishop Joseph Mercieca".

PBS was following criteria that went contrary to obligations laid down in the Constitution in the field of news and current events, the MLP charged.

The national broadcasting station was disregarding this obligation and promoting the Nationalist government's agenda.

"Under Fr Borg's chairmanship, news bulletins are being manipulated in such a way as to be full of propaganda in favour of the Nationalist government," the MLP said.

In a counter statement, the board pointed out that it was not responsible for the day-to-day management of the newsroom and noted that in the last 12 months, the MLP had only lodged one protest with PBS. This complaint had been remedied within a few hours.

The board said that during the same period the MLP had not made a single complaint against the PBS newsroom to the Broadcasting Authority (BA). This showed that the newsroom gave adequate coverage to all parties. The board said the accusations made in the MLP statement were vague and it invited the party to address them to the BA and to request it to investigate them.

In its statement, the MLP cited instances of news bulletins loaded with interviews with more than one Nationalist minister but that failed to broadcast the reactions of the MLP spokesmen.

MLP statements criticising the PN government were "buried" in the news bulletin or completely ignored, the MLP said.

It said PBS has been ignoring statements issued by members of the Labour parliamentary group. This was giving the wrong impression that the MLP did not have an opinion on developments in the country.

In the last two days, there had been at least three occasions when PBS had ignored such statements, it said. PBS acted differently when a Nationalist minister felt the need to issue a statement to respond to some speech made by Labour leader Alfred Sant.

Under the direction of Fr Borg, PBS news bulletins were being conducted according to what suited the Nationalist government, the party said.

"There is no doubt that PBS news are being used as a very important part of a strategy which the PN government is adopting to depict the MLP and its leader in a bad light," the MLP said.

In the light of this, it added, it had no confidence in the direction of the editorial board or in Fr Borg.