Twice during the past two months, SBS Australia - a television station broadcast in all Australian states - transmitted a test card during the half-hour allocated for news in the Maltese language on Sunday mornings because it had not received the recorded news from Public Broadcasting Services in Malta.

In an e-mail sent to PBS, which was copied to The Times, Mario Bonnici, a Maltese emigrant in Australia, complained that the Maltese community had been denied its week-old recorded news in Maltese which SBS Australia broadcasts at 9 a.m. on Sundays.

Mr Bonnici said that on February 12 and March 19, the video tape containing news from Malta had not reached the television station. SBS broadcasts news in a variety of languages both on TV and radio.

"I know we Maltese/Australians are treated with contempt by our Maltese brothers and sisters in Malta but I do not think things can be more pathetic. We do not expect to have live news like other communities do, but please do not deny us our week-old recorded news," Mr Bonnici wrote.

PBS news manager Sylvana Cristina said in reply that the tape is picked up every Friday morning by courier.

"Over the past four weeks there was only one occasion where the pick-up happened late because of the public holiday on February 10. On that occasion, the tape was picked up the following Monday (February 13) as the Malta offices of DHL were closed on both Friday and Saturday," Ms Cristina wrote.

The March 19 bulletin was picked up from PBS at 11.30 a.m., Ms Cristina said, providing a tracking and tracing record which showed that the package had been "held in bond" in Sydney because it was miscoded.

Apologising for the mishap, the news manager said PBS was making arrangements for the tape to be collected on Thursdays whenever a public holiday falls on a Friday to ensure that the Maltese news bulletin arrives at SBS on time.