Government backs PBS on programme selection

The Labour Party's criticism of Public Broadcasting Services was confusing and inconsistent and showed that the party wanted PBS, the state broadcaster, to once again be controlled by the government, according to the Government Investments Ministry.

The ministry said it did not make sense for Labour MP Helena Dalli to claim lack of transparency just because the PBS board of directors had not accepted all the programmes recommended by the PBS editorial board.

Neither was there any sense in her argument that choosing programmes was the role of the editorial board.

This was because the editorial board, set up by the government amid criticism from the MLP, had a particular role which was laid out in the government's policy on national broadcasting.

The process of evaluation and commercial decision-making separate from content evaluation enabled PBS to take the right decisions, the ministry insisted.

This was reflected in the fact that for the first time, PBS had become profitable and its content offering had improved.

What counted was the satisfaction of audiences who expressed their belief that TVM was the best television station on the island.