State TV, producer defend right to expose 'extremist'

People have a right to see an extremist like Norman Lowell exposed for what he truly believes in, according to the acting CEO of the Public Broadcasting Services, Natalino Fenech.

He told the Broadcasting Authority yesterday he asked for the Bondiplus show with Mr Lowell to be aired live, rather than being of pre-recorded and edited, because he did not want anything removed by the monitors. He wanted to show viewers that Mr Lowell's racist views did not stop at illegal immigration but had many more far-reaching consequences.

Bondiplus, the Monday chat show on Television Malta, is being charged with breaking the Broadcasting Authority laws and regulations regarding the promotion of equality. The charge is in relation to the May 3 edition when Mr Lowell was the only guest.

Lou Bondì, the show's presenter and producer, said the Broadcasting Authority acted inconsistently because Mr Lowell had been allowed to be interviewed on various programmes in the past years.

The chairman of the broadcasting watchdog, Joseph Scicluna said that, in 2008, Mr Lowell's five-minute slot forming part of a series of political broadcasts had not been aired because it was found to violate the Criminal Code. He added that when Mr Lowell was interviewed on Smash TV, action had been taken over the programme and in other cases Mr Lowell did not necessarily incite racial hatred.

However, Mr Bondì claimed that, although there was a lot of feedback about the programme, he spoke to all those who felt offended and they later understood the producers' reasoning that such ideas had to be exposed and challenged.

He said Mr Lowell's popularity had increased over the past years and he garnered almost 4,000 votes in the last election. This was partly because he was only allowed to appear on television without anyone rebutting his claims. This meant there was a public interest motivation in making people realise how dangerous Mr Lowell's arguments were.

Mr Bondì challenged the Authority to bring forward someone who started to agree with Mr Lowell as a result of the programme.

He added that while public opinion on the programme was difficult to gauge, the comments under two of the most read articles about the subject on www.timesofmalta.com showed that the vast majority of people agreed with their decision to air the programme.

Lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia said she worked in the field of human rights and disagreed strongly with Mr Lowell but believed it was better to highlight this social reality than ignore it.

She argued that even foreign case law agreed that there needed to be a balance between the right to be free of discrimination and the right of freedom of expression and the public right to know.

The Broadcasting Authority will now decide on the matter in the coming days.