PBS denies 'censoring' Glenn Bedingfield

Public Broadcasting Services yesterday denied censoring Glenn Bedingfield, who earlier called on the station to revoke its decision to "censor" an interview with him which was to be broadcast last night during the programme Reporter.

He also asked the Broadcasting Authority to see that the programme was broadcast as scheduled.

Mr Bedingfield said the interview was censored on the excuse that PBS did not have a policy on candidates for the European Parliament candidates.

But PBS said it wanted to ensure all current and prospective MEPs were given equal treatment when it came to air time in its programmes.

Since Mr Bedingfield was an MEP and a candidate for the forthcoming elections, PBS last week informed the producer of Reporter that he could not interview Mr Bedingfield.

It was not PBS's fault that the independent producer had forged ahead with the interview.

"Mr Bedingfield is incorrect when he says he is being censored by PBS. He has appeared twice in the past six weeks, where he was interviewed alone for 12 whole minutes in our own programme dealing with EU issues while three weeks ago he participated in a discussion with Simon Busuttil in the same programme.

"He had also featured and was interviewed in the news when he was elected MEP on October 24," the station said.

Mr Bedingfield said in the morning he had given the interview in his capacity as MEP and in it he criticised the government for the way it treated patients who were on the waiting list for an operation when the lists were getting longer and in some instances had even gone over the 1,000 mark.

He also criticised the government for making drivers pay VAT twice when buying second hand cars from EU member states.