The on-again, off-again, on-again news from Malta to SBS channel 28 in Australia has kept up its reputation of being the most boring, backward, uninformative and of Third World country quality, when comparing the half-hour news bulletin with other ethnic news from Europe.

First we have to rely on the video news to get to Australia on time; on many occasions it does not get here at all and so we are stuck with a test picture for half an hour.

What happened to the advanced Maltese technology we read about?

One can only imagine the disappointment mostly among the elderly who are eagerly hoping to catch a glimpse of the Maltese landscape.

Then there are the presenters that mumble through the news and the field interviewers are not much better.

There is also the content. On Sunday, December 17 the news started with an item about Archbishop-elect Mgr Paul Cremona.

No one can deny that this is news but 15 minutes allocated to this item in a 30-minute bulletin is a bit excessive.

The news of his election included his life story, which is not news.

This half-hour news bulletin is nothing but third grade useless fare.

My advice to the producers and news readers is to watch how other European countries like Italy, Greece, Germany and France, to name a few, do it and maybe then raise the service to that standard.

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