The Broadcasting Authority has fined TVM €2,328 after concluding that the programme Bonġu had breached fundamental advertising principles as established by Maltese and European legislation.

The legislation calls for effective separation between the informative and advertising sections of a programme so as not to deceive viewers.

The authority said in a statement that the programme breached the law consistently with one of its informative sections being broadcast in a local shop which could be easily identified. The shop represented one of the firms advertising in the programme.

The station was also found guilty of breaching other laws and regulations during the same programme, including that which obliged a programme to show the rates of calls and SMSs it encouraged the public to send.

The authority expressed its preoccupation that such breach had taken place on the national station, which should lead by example.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.