TVM will not broadcast COVID-19 questions from press… for Constitutional impartiality

The Broadcasting Authority has insisted that constitutional impartiality on the national broadcaster necessitates that political commentary in response to journalists’ questions during COVID-19 press conferences cannot be broadcast.

The startling decision by the BA came in response to a complaint by the Nationalist Party, over replies made by the Prime Minister to questions from the press.

In an ironic twist of events, the PN’s complaint on “partisan replies” by Robert Abela has pushed the broadcasting regulator into neutering TVM’s duty to broadcast COVID-19 press conferences, by removing journalists’ questions for fear it would provoke political commentary.

The BA, whose board is made up of four representatives, two appointed each by the Labour Party and the Nationalist Party, and a chairman appointed by the President of the Republic, is often requested by political parties to redress imbalances of reporting by TVM.

But each political party owns a TV station whose broadcasts do not need to abide by notions of impartiality.

“The Authority considered that, while the Prime Minister’s press conference was of national interest and in itself did not create an imbalance when it comes to impartiality, the political comments made were the result of the unforeseeable questions of journalists… this has led to an imbalance,” the BA said in a statement defending its decision.

This means viewers of TVM will be denied that part of the broadcast dealing with questions and answers.

The BA insisted that it was necessary to protect the impartiality of the broadcast by avoiding “unexpected questions from journalists, and the ensuing answers of speakers” to respect the Constitution’s requirement for impartiality on public broadcasting.

The BA also said its long-time legal advisor was Prof. Ian Refalo, and not the PBS’s own Mark Vassallo.