Public Broadcasting Services Limited has appointed veteran news journalist Reno Bugeja as its new head of news.

He replaces Natalino Fenech, who joined PBS after years at Times of Malta and who has now moved on to a job at the University

Mr Bugeja replaces Natalino Fenech who joined PBS after years at Times of Malta and who has now moved on to a job at the University of Malta. Dr Fenech had joined PBS a few months before the 2008 general election.

Sources said Mr Bugeja’s post is expected to be made official following a board meeting next week.

PBS had been criticised repeatedly by the Labour Party while in opposition, when it accused it failing to be impartial and of becoming the former government’s propaganda machine.

The new Labour government has appointed Felix Agius, a former editor of the PL’s weekly KullĦadd, and lawyer Martin Fenech to the national broadcasting station’s editorial board.

The board, responsible for all the station’s content, will be headed by Joseph Sammut, a public relations officer at Caritas, the Church’s social agency.

Mr Sammut had occupied various positions within the civil aviation industry, including executive chairman at Malta International Airport and head of sales at Air Malta. He had also served on the board of the Broadcasting Authority and was editor of Radio Malta.

The Government had also announced sweeping changes to the station’s board of directors, which will be headed by veteran industrialist Tonio Portughese.

Dr Portughese is a long-standing director of the Malta branch of STMicroelectronics but his face was a common sight in the 1980s and 1990s as a moderator of political debates organised by the Broadcasting Authority.

Theatre director Albert Marshall, who was chief executive at PBS during the 1996 Labour administration, was appointed deputy chairman.

The board members are lawyer and The Sunday Times of Malta columnist Claire Bonello, actor and film critic Tony Cassar Darien, sports doctor Edward Cassar Delia, former Nationalist Party MP and president Frank Portelli, Paul Vella, a director of printing company Velprint and a former State broadcasting journalist, and financial services practitioner Adriana Zarb Adami.

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