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Brandishing a litany of names of people who resigned from PBS under Austin Gatt, and another one of people forming “part of the Nationalist network” producing programmes on the same station, Labour leader Alfred Sant yesterday slammed the government for turning the national broadcasting station into “a mouthpiece of the regime”.
Speaking to journalists outside the station premises, Sant said public broadcasting was in a crisis in the wake of the latest two resignations at PBS.
He said a Labour government would ensure that PBS had a serious board of directors, “not marionettes”, and that production companies working for the station would have to adhere to national public broadcasting standards.
Among the “biased manipulators” and “close PN collaborators” producing programmes on PBS, Sant mentioned Where’s Everybody?, Mike Seychell – a PBS board director who works with former Net TV’s Pierre Portelli, and Chris Scicluna – a former Net TV reporter who is now Michael Frendo’s communications coordinator and produces entertainment programmes on the national TV station.
Sant also expressed his disagreement at Gonzi’s plan to remove Joseph Said Pullicino from Broadcasting Authority chairman.
Labour MP Helena Dalli also slammed Gatt for reiterating his decision to exclude Charles Flores from becoming news manager, despite the Ombudsman’s admonition.
“Now he’s saying he doesn’t believe that the person chosen by PBS itself to become news manager is the best person,” Dalli said. “This is an insult to the people’s intelligence. He is just putting the national broadcasting station on the same footing as other commercial companies and is only interested in ratings.”
Meanwhile Gatt’s ministry reacted in a press statement, claiming it was “unbelievable” that Sant was referring to PBS as the government’s “regime tool” when under the courts had found past Labour governments guilty of blatant public broadcasting injustices.
The ministry said that since the restructuring, PBS has improved its financial performance with a meagre loss of Lm43,000 in 2005, as opposed to Lm140,00 losses in 2002, while still retaining the highest audience figures and quality public broadcasting.
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