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Karl Schembri
Fr Joe Borg, the former chairman of the PBS editorial board who resigned earlier this month, is expected to be appointed by Francis Zammit Dimech as his advisor on audiovisual policy in the culture ministry, MaltaToday has learned.
Fr Borg had informed Investments Minister Austin Gatt he was resigning from the national broadcasting station’s editorial board four months ago, informing him that he had “made peace with the Archbishop” following a year and a half of controversy with the Curia about his position at PBS.
Investments ministry sources say Gatt was not convinced of Fr Borg’s stated reason for his resignation from the post which also put him in the Opposition’s line of fire. His pending appointment may make him even more suspicious in Gatt’s eyes, given that he will still be involved at PBS on behalf of Zammit Dimech, although his new job is expected to attract much less controversy.
Sources said Fr Borg and Zammit Dimech had been holding talks over the new appointment in the last weeks although this has yet to be officially sanctioned by the office of the prime minister.
A spokesman for the minister declined to comment on the matter when contacted yesterday night.
Among his responsibilities, Fr Borg is expected to be advising Zammit Dimech on the PBS’s audiovisual policy – an area which the culture and tourism minister has totally ignored despite the fact that he is technically responsible for the station’s public broadcasting obligations.
Months before his resignation, Fr Borg had serious disagreements with the former PBS chairman about the quality of TV programmes chosen for the present schedule, which in the priest’s opinion have turned the national station into a commercial one while ignoring its public service obligations.
The conflict ended up dividing the station sharply between the editorial board and the PBS board of directors, as clearly evidenced in editorial board’s annual report published last week and written by Fr Borg.
Ironically, Fr Borg was instrumental in drafting the national broadcasting policy for PBS which he now believes is being flouted through the kind of programmes being broadcast.
A lecturer in communication studies at the University of Malta, Fr Borg, 55, had also set up and directed the Church’s Media Centre in 1980 and its radio station RTK in 1991.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
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