[WATCH] David Thake follows spirit of BA’s instructions – and is back on air

The PN radio show host is back on air, on his own programme, but as the show’s resident commentator, rather than the host

David Thake is back on air, but is not actually hosting his own programme
David Thake is back on air, but is not actually hosting his own programme

Nationalist Party candidate and radio talk show host David Thake is back on air, two days after the Broadcasting Authority ordered all stations to stop election candidates from hosting regular programmes.

In a move that would have made Machiavelli proud, Thake went on air again today at 4.15pm, but in a twist engineered to circumvent the BA instructions, the programme Taghna Lkoll was presented by a female presenter, who introduced Thake as the talk show’s resident commentator.

In fact, it was mainly him doing the talking as usual, with him exchanging frequent barbs with the presenter warning her he could take up a lot of time and sometime cheekily asking her for some more time to expound on his thoughts.

If the BA’s instructions were indeed to stop election candidates from “hosting” regular programmes, Thake’s move was decidedly well thought out as he can not be prevented from appearing on programmes as a guest.

On Tuesday, he had greeted the BA’s decision with dismay, after having to stop his daily programme a mere five minutes after going on air.

But on Wednesday, at a PN activity, he had promised he would back on air today.

This is, to be fair, is not a new issue and it comes up for discussion in – basically – every election campaign.

In the last election, PBS had barred election candidates from continuing to host programmes during the campaign.

And although Net TV and One had decided to keep election candidates off air, the PN media reversed its policy this year after broad complaints by Radio 101 listeners who object to Thake and Norman Vella not being able to host their programmes.