Alternattiva Demokratika (AD), which for many years has complained about lack of coverage in the broadcasting media dominated by the party-owned television stations, has applied for a licence to have its own television station.
Speaking during a press conference next to the Broadcasting Authority (BA)’s offices in Blata l-Bajda yesterday morning, party chairperson Harry Vassallo told the media that a few weeks ago, AD submitted to the BA an application for a nationwide television station.
He said the BA has promised the party that it will be issuing a letter of intent for the television licence as soon as the party supplies the relevant information.
Vassallo said that AD will not interfere with the day-to-day running of the station and will therefore be issuing a call for tenders for its management. The call for applications will open on Monday and will run for fifteen days. Obtaining the tender documents for the management of AD’s television station is set at Lm100.
The successful tenderer will have to provide studios and transmission facilities together with the programme content. He or she will also have to provide a news service which will air AD’s views but will be impartial and consonant with the station’s editorial policy, which, according to Vassallo, sets PBS as the model broadcaster to emulate.
“The station will not replicate the excesses of partisanship perpetrated by the other party stations but will strive to be impartial and sensitive. We already have a track record of how we managed our radio station in the past nine years,” Vassallo said.
Among the information asked by the authority is the station name and the management structure, but this issue cannot be resolved until the party adjudicates the call for tenders that it will be issuing for the station’s management.
Asked about the timeframe for opening the television station, he said that the proposals will be examined as soon as the deadline for the bidding process expires.
Asked how the party will be financing the television station, Vassallo explained that the station will not be broadcasting terrestrially but will be available on Melita Cable, therefore they will not have to pay the whole licence fee (currently set at Lm8,000 a year).
Moreover, since the station’s management, facilities and programmes will be outsourced, the party will not have to make a substantial capital investment, he added.
“Alternattiva Demokratika would be ready to close down its television station if Labour and the Nationalists were to close down their respective television stations,” Vassallo reiterated.
Asked by MaltaToday whether AD would accept a bid from Rachel Vella’s Tista Tkun Int programme, which was unceremoniously dumped from the PBS schedule after seven years, Vassallo said: “If she wants to come with us, she is welcome!”