The PBS's beleaguered editorial board has again locked horns with TV presenter Lou Bondì, this time over last Monday's interview with veteran diplomat Evarest Saliba concerning his recently released memoirs No Honorable Minster.
In a statement issued yesterday by the board's acting chairman Dominic Fenech, the board said it wanted to disassociate itself from Monday's Bondiplus show.
The board said it had reservations about the choice of subject, its "potential political one-sidedness" and its unimaginative, undemanding format and for this reason had asked to have a detailed running order of the programme before it could sanction it.
It never got the running order yet, the show was given the all-clear by the management which yet again overruled the board's decision on something that was purely of an editorial nature, Prof. Fenech said.
Mr Bondì was quick to react, saying he had asked the Labour Party to comment on the matter and invited a series of current and former MLP officials to counter Mr Saliba's claims. These included former ministers Alex Sciberras Trigona and Leo Brincat as well as Prof. Fenech himself, as a historian and former general secretary of the Labour Party who served during some of the years covered in Saliba's book. They all declined, however.
Prof. Fenech strongly rebutted Mr Bondì's claim about him.
In his statement Mr Bondì said that he had invited Prof. Fenech through the PBS Head of Programmes and the latter had informed him that Prof. Fenech had declined.
"It just never happened," Prof. Fenech insisted. "I don't recall whether the head of programmes may have said something on the lines that I should take part in passing and I told him to sod off or something like that, but there was never any request made to me directly or indirectly for me to contribute."
During his conversation with the head of programmes Prof. Fenech said he was simply asked to suggest names of people Mr Bondì could interview to balance the programme. "I just told him, am I Bondì's research assistant?".
Mr Bondì also pointed out that the format adopted for last Monday's show did not have a running order as it had no pre-recorded features in it. It was a straight, one-to-one interview.
"It is worth noting that when we produced an edition of Bondiplus on Lino Spiteri's book Jien U Ghaddej fil-Politika, we used more or less the same format. Domenic Fenech had found no objection to that edition. Domenic Fenech happened to write the forward of that book. Enough said."
Prof. Fenech insisted that the point was not the subject itself but that the board wanted to be sure that it would be tackled properly.
The board had asked for a plan of Mr Bondì's show, listing the issues he intended addressing. "Now if Mr Bondì's show is improvised that's his problem and besides, the show should just not have gone ahead ignoring completely the board's request. At the very least he could have provided a basic sketch, saying this is what I can provide you with."
Last month, Bondiplus was at the centre of a row between the Labour party, the editorial board, which backed the Party, and the PBS board of directors over a show that sought to examine Labour's proposals on overtime tax exemption and public holidays.