The Malta Television Awards have been postponed to later this year, the organisers said this afternoon.

They said that following an urgent meeting of the board of directors, it was decided to postpone the event because of the differences that had come up.

PBS and Net Television yesterday announced they will not be taking part in the events.

The organisers said that in the coming days they will be appointing a board formed by representatives of all stations and led by an independent person to ensure the credibility of the organisers, as was the case in previous years.

The board would be appointed for an agreement to the reached on the differences which had come up this year.

The directors expressed their disappointment at the behaviour of PBS and said they believed the station’s decision was because a Best Fashion Programme category was not introduced.

The board said it had insisted that there was already a Lifestyle Programme award and it could not add to the long list of categories to benefit certain producers.

The organisers confirmed they had several meetings with PBS and some form of compromise had also been reached except on the Best Fashion Programme category.

Asked for a reaction, a spokesman for PBS reiterated the position taken yesterday that the national station will not take part in such an event unless this was organised by the competent authority, which in this case was the Broadcasting Authority.

They said that by the closing date they had received 270 submissions for the awards.