In what some may interpret as a sign of Adrian Delia’s ‘new way’ of doing politics, the Nationalist Party has not filed a single complaint to the Broadcasting Authority against the national broadcaster following his election as leader last September
By way of contrast, during Simon Busuttil’s first 10 months at the helm, the PN filed no fewer than 10 complaints.
Sources within the Nationalist Party told The Sunday Times of Malta that the ‘soft’ approach the party was taking was raising questions even within the PN parliamentary group.
“The message being conveyed through this approach is that the PN is quite happy with the existing editorial policy at PBS, even though nothing seems to have changed from last year when the party was constantly accusing the national station of political bias,” one source said.
This is corroborated by BA statistics which highlight that last year alone the PN had filed seven complaints during the election campaign. Prior to that, between 2014 and 2016, the party had filed 14 other complaints.
Asked for his reaction, a PN spokesman said the party was resorting to “alternative means” to seek redress whenever it was aggrieved by certain editorial decisions.
“Our complaints are being upheld by PBS and the issues are being raised in various manners, be it a simple phone call, an email or meeting in person,” he said.
The message being conveyed through this approach is that the PN is quite happy with the existing editorial policy at PBS
“Over the last months, whenever the party complained of imbalance or unfair reporting, the national station took action,” he added.
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“Consequently, there was no need to file a formal complaint with the Broadcasting Authority as the issue was sorted out amicably.”
Asked if the party was satisfied with the current affairs and news coverage at PBS, the PN spokes-man said that so long as the party’s complaints were add-ressed, they were content with the situation.
Earlier this month the PBS controversially decided to ignore a damning report issued by the European Banking Authority which slammed the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit for breaching an anti-money-laundering directive. However, the station later opted to report the terse reply issued by the FIAU on the same subject.
Sources told this newspaper that the PN’s decision not to file a formal complaint over this report had fuelled questions among the parliamentary group.
Asked about this specific case, the party spokesman said PBS always reported the PN’s statements. While confirming that a number of PN MPs had raised the matter, he reiterated that since the new party administration took office in autumn last year, their complaints were always heeded by PBS.
However, he said he was not in a position to comment on the circumstances prevailing under the previous administration.
The spokesman noted that decisions on whether to file a formal BA complaint were taken by the party as a whole, not unilaterally.
Otherwise, on matters of a “logistical nature”, like delays in broadcasting or uploading a report on a party statement or activity, the issue was handled directly at a lower level within the PN’s structures by the information office.