Labour denies it tried to block TV chat show

The Malta Labour Party categorically denied it had written to or contacted the Malta Broadcasting Authority to ask that Tuesday's edition of Bondiplus would not appear.

The party said that during the programme the presenter had repeatedly claimed that the programme was being broadcast despite the fact that the MLP had asked the Broadcasting Authority to stop it. The MLP insisted that was definitely not the case.

Programme presenter Lou Bondí reacted to Labour's comments, quoting from a letter through which the Broadcasting Authority made it known it would not be stopping the programme in question.

The authority said in its letter it had taken note of a media release issued by Labour's main health spokesman Michael Farrugia in which he said he was not accepting the invitation to take part in the programme and that he had suggested that the programme should not be aired on PBS.

Mr Bondí said it was irrelevant that the MLP had not directly contacted the authority; the fact remained that Labour did not want the show to be aired.

The party also said it was shameful that the national station broadcast programmes that were not impartial or balanced, adding that this was repeatedly confirmed over the past month through strong statements issued by the PBS editorial board and by the Broadcasting Authority in regard to the Bondiplus presenter.

Mr Bondí insisted he had not been found guilty of breaching impartiality. "Not only have I never been found guilty in this respect but nobody ever made such an accusation in my regard. Not now, nor in the 15 years that I have been conducting programmes on PBS," he said.