The Broadcasting Authority has advised presenters on state TV or radio that, due to the election campaign, they should not comment on the contents of news articles, even on programmes whose purpose it is to analyse news.
"As far as current affairs programmes are concerned, including newspaper analysis, all presenters should not comment on the contents of the articles referred to in their news reporting and be as factual as possible to avoid falling foul of the constitutional and legal provisions on impartiality," the BA told the managers of public broadcasting stations in a circular earlier this month.
The political and commercial media are exempt from the impartiality requirements of the Broadcasting Act.
When contacted, the BA's CEO Kevin Aquilina pointed out that the directive has been the practice for years when important elections were approaching. citing the EU referendum, the 2003 general election and the 2004 European Parliament election as examples.
He said the memo does not actually prohibit commentary but warns that it should be in line with the Broadcasting Act's provisions of impartiality.
The directive clearly says that presenters should "not comment on the content" of news articles. However, Dr Aquilina insisted that the statement is qualified by the rest of the sentence which refers to the constitutional and legal provisions on impartiality.
"The point is that if a comment is made, the person making that comment should make sure that all the positions expressed on that issue, whether by the PN, the MLP, AD or AN, are included," he said.
When contacted, Fr Joe Borg, who presents a news analysis programme on Campus FM on Wednesdays, said he had spoken to Dr Aquilina and had received a different reply, to the effect that the analysis should be strictly restricted to telling listeners what the article contains and no more.
"I was told basically that if you are commenting on a news piece that says, for instance, that a health clinic has been inaugurated you cannot say that it's the fifth one or the only one to be opened this year... Basically, I think it doesn't make sense," he said, pointing out that the directive becomes even more illogical when you consider that the political parties are given a carte blanche.
"In their case (the political media), they are not getting away with bias but with obscenity," he said.
Asked whether he would be respecting the directive, he replied impishly: "You tune in tomorrow morning and you'll see".
Similarly, Jordan de Giorgio, director at Deemedia TV, which produces a breakfast show for PBS that includes a newspaper analysis by Manwel Micallef, said she thought the directive was completely unfair. "Our informative and thought-provoking slots normally raise a very interesting debate, however, the BA chose to censor everyone's views and opinions throughout the electoral campaign," she said. By doing so, she continued, the authority was going against the interests of "thinking voters, the ones they should be shielding. When will we mature?"
mmicallef@timesofmalta.com