A decision by the Malta Broadcasting Authority to fine the Public Broadcasting Services €1,164 (Lm500) because of what it called an "imbalance" in a Bondiplus programme about former diplomat Evarist Saliba's memoirs will be contested in court.

The Broadcasting Authority said on Wednesday a monitoring report showed that the Bondiplus programme aired on December 17 failed to maintain impartiality as requested by law.

The authority said it had to approve beforehand the subjects that were going to be tackled in PBS current affairs programmes and CEO Kevin Aquilina had requested information about which sections of Mr Saliba's would be tackled.

However, instead of discussing Mr Saliba's diplomatic experiences, programme presenter Lou Bondì built his programme on personal experiences, the majority of which had political connotations which, by and large, were critical of previous Labour ministers and the MLP government.

The Authority said the Constitution stipulated that the Broadcasting Authority had to ensure there was impartiality in issues dealing with political controversy and even programmes addressing political controversy of a historical nature had to be presented in a balanced manner.

It said Mr Bondì had invited former Foreign Minister Alex Sceberras Trigona and Labour MP Leo Brincat but these declined the invitation. Mr Bondì said he had also invited Domenic Fenech, who denied he was invited. The authority said that though in the past there were cases when it considered that the presenter would have fulfilled his obligations by inviting representatives of a political party, even if these failed to turn up, this could not apply in all cases. The presenter could have balanced his programme by inviting a political historian or other academics.

When considering the above, the Broadcasting Authority decided that the charge issued by the chief executive had been proven and thus it fined the national TV station.

But Mr Bondì said the authority's decision was unjust and went against the spirit of the Broadcasting Act. He said the authority exercised powers it did not have and discriminated against Bondiplus.

"This is the first time the authority made such accusations against programmes presented by myself and I am taking them very seriously and I intend appealing against this in court, together with the TV station," he said.

Mr Bondì said he followed the authority's guidelines and it was not his fault that MLP exponents failed to turn up and, hence, he could not be found guilty of being unbalanced. Simply because politicians fail to accept an invite to take part should not mean that one cannot discuss a particular subject, Mr Bondì insisted.