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Karl Schembri
Despite the official announcement a week ago, the national broadcasting station is still without a news manager. Sylvana Cristina, the person earmarked as PBS news manager, is still negotiating her contract for the internal appointment that will shift her from the relatively low-key post of head of programmes to the hot seat at the helm of the newsroom.
PBS sources say Cristina is discussing her work contract with her employer, more than a week since government declared her nomination as the national broadcasting station’s head of news.
Last week, Cristina was abroad when her name was published by the Investments Ministry as the person who will take the post after the external recruitment process was scrapped, on instructions from the Office of the Prime Minister. MaltaToday is reliably informed that the ministry decided to publish its decision as soon as it was clear that Cristina’s name had already been leaked to the press.
Sources said Cristina was cautious in her acceptance of the decision and negotiations are still ongoing. While the Investments Ministry is treating this as an internal appointment in which her work conditions should remain the same, Cristina’s new role means assuming legal responsibility for the PBS new editorial content on television and radio, apart from a different work schedule and increased daily pressure.
“I hope she accepts,” a high-level government source said, admitting that PBS and the Investments Ministry had no written confirmation as yet that Cristina had accepted the job.
Cristina’s colleagues say she is willing to take the job but the new responsibilities are prompting her to scrutinise carefully her new conditions before assenting to the decision taken by her boss, concluding an 18-month-long messy recruitment process for the most sensitive post at the station after that of the chairman.
According to Minister Austin Gatt’s Head of Secretariat, Cristina’s current remuneration package should remain the same and she should be engaged on a definite three-year performance-based contract. But Gatt’s spokesman, Manuel Delia, declined to elaborate on what seems to be delaying the conclusion of Cristina’s contract.
“Your questions are about purely internal matters at PBS and we do not feel we should be making public statements on them,” Delia said.
He declined to reply when asked whether Cristina was consulted before her pending appointment was publicised, and also refused to give a date by when the news manager should be appointed.
Responsible for the heavy restructuring at PBS that saw staff cut by two-thirds and a change of chairman halfway through the process, Gatt and the station’s management were accused by Lawrence Gonzi’s office of compromising the selection process for news manager, ordering the ministry to abort the recruitment.
Last Sunday, MaltaToday revealed that the Investments Ministry had given the go-ahead to Times journalist Vanessa Macdonald’s appointment as news manager, even though she was preceded by three other candidates on the short list drawn up by the interviewing board. The decision was shot down in a letter sent by Gonzi’s Head of Secretariat, Edgar Galea-Curmi, to Claudio Grech at Gatt’s ministry.
“The process used for the appointment of the Manager News was compromised by the procedure that was adopted,” Galea-Curmi wrote in his terse memo from Castille. “Under the circumstances it is recommended that you do not proceed with the appointment as suggested in this report.”
Gatt’s spokesman also declined to state who had decided to ignore the second and third placed on the selection short list to go for Macdonald, after the first placed refused the offer – a decision which irked the prime minister amid concerns of legal wrangles with the two contenders, Roderick Agius and Carmen Sammut – deemed by the ministry as “holding a political baggage” that disqualified them from the appointment despite their high placing by the selection board.
“We have nothing to add to the statement and correspondence exchange we have issued,” Gatt’s spokesman said.
Galea-Curmi insisted with MaltaToday that the “recommendation” to abort the process had nothing to do personally with the prime minister’s views about Macdonald.
About Cristina, Galea-Curmi said: “The appointment does not require OPM’s approval. The issue for OPM was never about individuals. PBS’s choice in the circumstance makes perfect sense.”
With her employment contract still unsigned, it is now up to Cristina, with a baggage of over two decades of broadcasting experience, to decide whether she will take the post and source of much headaches since Gatt started dismembering the national broadcaster.
The former Head of News at Radio 101 in the PN station’s infancy and director of the legendary series Ahn’ ahna jew m’ahniex? broadcast on TVM after Fenech Adami’s ’87 electoral victory is said to be looking forward to the new post, although being the solution to a “compromised” scenario may not make her the most comfortable employee of the remaining staff at Television House.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
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