No redress for PN’s ‘justified’ complaint on PBS, says Broadcasting Authority

A complaint filed by the Nationalist Party against the Public Broadcasting Services was given short shrift by the Broadcasting Authority.

The BA said it would take no action over a complaint by the PN that claimed the PBS’s news service on the construction of the Delimara plant’s turbines in Sweden, featured political comments by energy minister Konrad Mizzi that necessitated a reply by the Opposition.

“The feature was an informative one and of interest to viewer… which however had short instances of what could be considered political controversy. The service even referred to the fact that the project was part of a controversy.”

The BA said the PN was justified in its complaint since it was not given the chance to offer its own opinion on the matter, even though PBS had already broadcast in another item a press conference by the Opposition on the power station.

“The BA appreciates the editor’s efforts at ensuring balance and impartiality, and asks that more attention is given to these instances so that complaints can be avoided,” the BA said.

The complaint, filed by lawyer Matthew Paris on behalf of the PN claimed the party was aggrieved by the broadcaster’s inclusion of political comments by energy minister Konrad Mizzi, without offering opposition an opportunity to air their reactions on the segment which was broadcast on the 20th August.

Lawyer Mark Vassallo, on behalf of PBS, had argued that the news bulletin should be seen as a whole and that on that particular date the news bulletin had also prominently featured a PN press conference during which the state had granted a bank guarantee to the consortium who will be building the power station.

PBS’s head of news, Reno Bugeja argued that the bank guarantee controversy had already been reported in the two preceding days, while the story about the power station’s development had been an initiative by the station, which gave information about the progress of the project. He defended the questions put to Mizzi as pertinent and not unbalanced, as Mizzi was asked to comment about two inquiries related to the project.

In its decision, the Authority noted that PN was not objecting to the project itself, but to the reporting of Mizzi’s political comments and felt that there had been “brief parts” of the broadcast which constituted political controversy.

In its reaction to the decision, the PN appealed to Bugeja to halt what it called a campaign of boycotting the PN, stop acting as a partisan tool for the Labour government and instead offer balanced reporting to the viewership.