PBS fined for 'offensive, insensitive' programme

Good intentions were not enough to save the state television station, PBS, from being fined by the Broadcasting Authority over a prime time interview with Norman Lowell.

Mr Lowell, who has been convicted of inciting racial hatred, was interviewed on Bondìplus last month.

Among other things he denied the Holocaust by referring to six million "ghosts", he said disabled people should be aborted or euthanised and argued that those who adopted African children should enjoy them in their "natural habitats".

The broadcasting watchdog fined PBS €1,164 for these "offensive" and "insensitive" parts, arguing that they could have been avoided and were not sufficiently countered.

However, it cleared the station of breaking laws on racism because presenter Lou Bondì was well prepared to counter most of Mr Lowell's racial arguments.

It said the decision to broadcast the programme and to do so "live without editing" was wrong.

The authority said it could not accept or understand why a person convicted of inciting racial hatred and known for such offensive opinions should be given "extensive" prime time airtime on state television.

Describing Mr Lowell's theories as "absurd and surreal", the BA said parts of the programme could have been avoided and were found to have broken article 13(2)(a) of the Broadcasting Act.

It complained that extracts from Mr Lowell's book, which were insensitive and offensive, had been quoted but not sufficiently countered.

PBS was defending the unfettered right of expression of an individual who was fighting to deny the freedoms of persons born with disabilities and those parents who adopted children of different races, the BA concluded.

In reaction, Mr Bondì said the decision was "unfair, discriminatory and Big-Brotherish" and it was "nauseatingly patronising" of the BA to think adult viewers needed it to filter what they should and should not know about politicians.

He stressed that Mr Lowell had been on television on many other occasions, including pre-election programmes produced by the authority itself.

"Journalists not only have a right to expose unpalatable truths about politicians but have an obligation to do so. Lowell is not just a man in the street," Mr Bondì said, pointing out that 3,559 electors voted for in the European Parliament elections.

"In a democracy, the pursuit of the truth and the right to free expression should be limited only with great care and in extreme circumstances," he said.