Broadcasting Authority upholds complaint by Jason Azzopardi over false allegations on state media

Declaring the title of the report as incorrect and unjust with regards to Azzopardi, the authority said that this declaration was in itself a sufficient remedy

The Broadcasting Authority has decided in favour of Caruana Galizia family lawyer Jason Azzopardi, in a complaint he filed against state broadcaster TVM.

The dispute centred around an online news item and a subsequent news broadcast making the false allegation that Azzopardi had been reprimanded by the court in a decree.

Azzopardi had complained that this was not a faithful and correct report as there was no such reprimand in the decree. Besides this, the emphasis had been on peripheral elements to the scope of the decree, he argued.

Azzopardi, who presented his own case, said that in the 18 page decree there was no warning or reprimand. After he had complained to the state broadcaster, the online report was corrected but the subsequent 8pm news bulletin repeated the incorrect information. The fact that the online version was changed was in itself an admission of fault on the part of the station.

Editor Norma Saliba for PBS confirmed that the word “warned” (“imwissi”) was changed as soon as they received the complaint and that this was later reflected in the 11pm news bulletin.

In its decision this afternoon, the Authority agreed with the plaintiff that the reporting was not faithful and that the journalist in question had misinterpreted the legal concept of “kawtela” as a warning.

Declaring the title of the report as incorrect and unjust with regards Azzopardi, the authority said that this declaration was in itself a sufficient remedy. “In the light of this, the Authority is reprimanding PBS and requesting its newsroom to give fitting and stringent attention to its reporting, in order that all reportage is truthful and close to the facts. The authority emphasises that in every story there is no interpretation of the facts and this so that the bulletin remains impartial, truthful and built on accuracy.”