Anton Attard a cog in PN machine - Labour

The Labour Party is claiming that Public Broadcasting Services CEO Anton Attard was the "high-ranking executive" present at a meeting between the Prime Minister and Nationalist MP Franco Debono.

"This confirms that PBS in part and parcel of GonziPN's partisan machine."

Anton Attard had already denied to MaltaToday of having been the mediator touted by Franco Debono in a blogpost he had published in his personal blog back in November 2012.

Attard formerly headed the Nationalist Party's television station Net and in 2008, he ran Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi's media campaign, taking care of every aspect of the PN leader's electoral campaign. He was then appointed as CEO at the national broadcaster in 2010.

Debono had also claimed that Xarabank presenter Peppi Azzopardi was at some point a mediator for the prime minister at the time that the MP had absented himself from parliament at the height of his first rupture with the party.

In a statement, Labour MP Gino Cauchi said Attard "had the duty and responsibility to remain above partisan politics in the best interest and the impartiality of the national broadcaster he was trusted to lead."

Cauchi added that Attard's declarations confirmed that he was at the meeting but not in the role of a mediator. Debono was quoted as saying that in one of his meetings with the Prime Minister, a PBS official was present when Gonzi allegedly told Debono that he 'did not attack Labour enough'.

"Once Attard confirmed that he was present at the meeting but not as a mediator, it seems that he participated in a meeting in which political strategy against Labour was discussed," Cauchi said as he insisted that Attard's actions were in breach of PBS policy.

He added that "GonziPN uses PBS for its electoral exigencies" and sheds light on the partisan attitude evidenced in PBS productions.