Anton Attard ‘never heard’ anyone say Scerri wanted to get rid of Norman Vella

PBS CEO Anton Attard today denied having heard anyone say that Silvio Scerri, the chief of staff at the Home Affairs Ministry, wanted “to get rid” of former TV Hemm presenter Norman Vella.

PBS falls under the ministerial responsibility of the Ministry for Home Affairs.

Attard was testifying in a case instituted by PN MEP candidate Vella, who is alleging political discrimination. Vella, a civil servant who availed himself of unpaid leave to pursue a broadcasting career, had been deployed with the Public Broadcasting Services on the request of the national broadcaster, in 2012.

But following Labour’s re-election, he was redeployed back to his original post an immigration officer at the Malta International Airport.

Attard also told the Employment Commission how three former One TV journalists were employed by the national broadcaster after the reassignment of presenter Norman Vella, shortly after the election.


Brandon Pisani, Rodney Vassallo, Dorothy Falzon were employed on a public call for applications, soon after Vella’s reassignment to the airport immigration department.


The court heard how Attard discusses PBS programme content with Scerri, due to the fact that Scerri “knows the medium.”

Similar consultations, however, did not take place with Brian Magro, the chief of staff responsible for PBS under the previous administration. 

Attard had initially said that his only contact with the Home Affairs Ministry was with the permanent secretary Kevin Mahoney, however he later admitted to communicating with Scerri.

The witness also said that since the termination of Norman Vella’s contract, PBS hds ended up with a lower net number of viewers than before.


Describing Vella as “a very competent producer and presenter”, Attard said that, in his opinion, Vella’s programmes were of a very good standard. 


Vella’s lawyer, Andrew Borg Cardona, asked the witness what kind of feedback they would receive from the public with respect to Vella’s programmes. Attard said they were broadly positive, with the occasional negative comment. 

The court was also told that TVHemm would do well in Broadcasting Authority surveys, which they would use to benchmark programme performance. 

The programme averaged 17,000 viewers for the period running from January to March 2013.

Attard told the commission that two formal complaints were received about Vella's programme. One was filed by then PN MP Franco Debono who was a guest on the programme, and another being filed by the Nationalist Party about the same programme in which Debono featured.

He testified that the retention or otherwise of Norman Vella was not up to him , but was the competence of the editorial board – of which Attard is a non-voting member.

“The view was that there should be different programmes with different people. I was not asked to give any recommendations or opinions on TV Hemm.”

The PBS CEO claimed to have received an email from Kevin Mahoney, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Home Affairs – responsible of PBS – asking  when the programme’s run would end and that it was principle permanent secretary Mario Cutajar who requested that Vella's secondment to PBS be revoked.

Pressed by Borg Cardona, the witness confirmed that Pisani, Vassallo and Falzon were all former One TV employees and that Norma Saliba was seconded directly from MEUSAC without a call for applications, adding that this type of arrangement was “quite common”.


The case will continue in January.