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Karl Schembri
The PBS newsroom has secured a weekly one-hour programme of current affairs to be broadcast at 9.30pm following protests with the board of directors which had slashed the programme by half and slotted it after 10.30pm.
While the details of the new programme are still being worked out given the late hour in which the station agreed with the journalists’ demands, PBS editorial board acting chairman Dominic Fenech confirmed that the newsroom will be producing a new current affairs programme later on in the schedule.
“It will be one hour long and to be broadcast at around 9.30pm during the week,” he said when contacted.
Last Sunday, MaltaToday revealed that the newsroom was on a collision course with the directors after its proposal for a current affairs programme was reduced by half and scheduled for broadcasting after 10.30pm.
“Originally the programme was going to be broadcast on Thursdays, but because of commercial requirements we were given an alternative time slot that is not acceptable, given the efforts that go into producing the programme,” PBS news manager Sylvana Cristina had said.
Fenech had said he still hoped the journalists would produce the programme as “despite the decimated newsroom it is still better than all the other newsrooms”.
Following internal negotiations last week, the station agreed to the newsroom’s demands to give more importance to its news service.
Boasting the highest audience levels among TV stations for its 8pm bulletin, the PBS newsroom insists that its current affairs programmes should be recognised as part of the station’s news service and should be given the importance they deserve. But the newsroom’s scant resources mean that journalists have to work on their off days to produce a weekly current affairs programme.
kschembri@mediatoday.com.mt
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