A debate between party deputy leaders Simon Busuttil and Louis Grech will be aired on Saturday on TVM’s Dissett, in line with a Broadcasting Authority order.
We would have expected the authority to see whether such a statement was actually needed before issuing it
The decision follows an authority statement that chastised Public Broadcasting Services for “putting itself above the authority’s decisions”. The national broadcaster was also directed to read the statement on its evening news bulletin yesterday.
But PBS said the authority’s statement was unnecessary and hasty given that it had already approved the January 5 programme during a board meeting on New Year’s Eve.
Timing and scheduling of the debate has reignited tensions between the authority and PBS, who are at loggerheads over which of them has the prerogative to determine the participants that appear on political and current affairs programmes.
PBS has said that deciding who appears on such programmes is up to its own producers. But the Broadcasting Authority had ruled last October that it was up to political parties to decide who appeared as their representatives.
Last Saturday, the authority recommended a debate take place during Dissett between the PL and PN deputy leaders after the PN objected to Mr Grech appearing on Dissett alone. Labour said it had no problem with Dr Busuttil appearing alongside its representative.
PBS had said it would discuss the authority’s recommendation, which it interpreted as “acknowledging that the topics and timings of PBS programmes are PBS’s responsibility and not simply subject to agreement between political parties”.
The broadcaster went on to note that a debate between the two deputy leaders had already been scheduled for the following week’s Xarabank episode on January 11.
But that reaction drew the authority’s ire yesterday. It said it would be forcing PBS to air the debate on Saturday’s Dissett. It described PBS’ attitude as “unacceptable” and said it would not tolerate such behaviour “especially in the sensitive few days leading to the electoral campaign”.
The authority also directed PBS to read the admonishing statement during yesterday’s news bulletin. A PBS reaction described the authority’s statement as “unnecessary”, given its editorial board had already decided to go along with the original January 5 debate recommendation.
“We would have expected the authority to see whether such a statement was actually needed before issuing it,” PBS said, saying it had genuinely believed last Saturday’s recommendation was a veiled message for political parties to not stick their noses into broadcasting issues.
Mr Grech and Dr Busuttil will now face each other on Saturday evening’s episode of Dissett. The Xarabank debate on January 11 has been postponed at the request of Mr Grech, who cannot make the appointment due to personal reasons.
Both parties had said they would refrain from campaigning before January 7.
Asked about this change of plans, a PL spokesman said the party had simply responded to a PBS programme invitation and was told Mr Grech was invited alone. When the PN decided to “force” its deputy leader onto the programme, Labour had “no problem” and actually suggested the debate take place a week later to respect the Christmas agreement between the two parties.
A PN spokesman said that by agreeing to the original Dissett invitation without Dr Busuttil present, the PL had breached the gentleman’s agreement.