Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando launched a scathing attack on broadcaster Lou Bondi today, telling the One TV programme Inkontri that people like him, Daphne Caruana Galizia, Fr Joe Borg and Andrew Borg Cardona were doing incalculable harm to the Nationalist Party.
Reacting to comments by Labour MP Gino Cauchi who singled out Bondi' as an example of PBS partiality in favour of the Nationalist Party, Pullicino Orlando said nothing could be further from the truth.
Pullicino Orlando criticised Bondi' over the way he presents his programmes and said he could not understand how PBS ended up giving Bondi' two programmes per week, when the better prepared discussion programme Dissett was relegated to a Saturday evening slot. No other public broadcaster in the world gave two discussion programmes to the same presenter as had happened in Malta.
Pullicino Orlando said he regretted ever appearing on Bondi' Plus and would never do so again, but he was prepared to meet Bondi' even in a programme chaired by Peppi Azzopardi.
Dr Pullicino Orlando did not wish to say more than he said in court on the 'coaching' he was given before the general election by Peppi Azzopardi . Later, he said he had asked Mr Azzopardi to help him to convey his message. Mr Azzopardi did not give him political help but helped him convey his message.
PBS CEO Anton Attard said Lou Bondi' had the same number of hours as in the past and he now had a later time slot, which was not the prime slot. Furthermore, Dissett had a more mature audience and surveys showed it was doing well on Saturdays.
During the programme, Peppi Azzopardi repeatedly called on programme presenter Joe Grima to phone Lou Bondi' were he to be the subject of the discussion, more so as he was speaking about fairness.
Mr Azzopardi said he had helped a number of people convey their message, including Alternattiva Demokratika, and he accepted a request from Joseph Muscat to raise the credibility of the PL radio and television.
European Commissioner John Dalli, interviewed separately by Joe Grima, also laid into Lou Bondi'.
Mr Dalli said one of the fundamentals of democracy was pluralism , but he feared there was now an erosion in Malta and this was creating a problem of real information to the people.
Mr Dalli spoke on how Joe Zahra, who had drawn up a false report about him with regard to a tendering process, used to work closely in a company with Lou Bondi.'
Lou Bondi' had used one of his programmes to wield the axe down on him, Mr Dalli said. Mr Bondi' had used the pretext of the sale of air tickets as a further attempt to discredit him. Later Mr Bondi' boasted that he had caused John Dalli's resignation – even though it later resulted he had done nothing wrong, Mr Dalli said.
Mr Dalli said there had been a concentration of reporting against him including The Sunday Times and The Times, with Bondi' producing one programme after another against him.
Joe Zahra had been offered Lm2m should the company he worked for been awarded the contract. He now wondered, Mr Dalli said, whether Mr Zahra would have kept the money for himself or whether he would have shared it.
Asked why there was so much opposition to him, Mr Dalli said he did not think it was the PN leadership issue, as he had accepted the result after the first round. But he would have opposed various things. One thing he was very proud of was the democratisation of the economy, but now he was seeing the economy concentrated into the hands of a few people again, Mr Dalli said.