BA slams Lou Bondi ‘unprofessional’

In a ruling over a complaint raised by the Labour Party regarding the content and features aired during Bondiplus broadcast on November 1, the Broadcasting Authority remarked that Lou Bondi was “unprofessional” in his approach to the arguments he raised to counter Labour leader Joseph Muscat’s Budget proposals.

“The way the presenter [Lou Bondi] calculated the impact of the proposals on the country’s deficit, by drawing a straight line over his personal opinion as to what could have been the cost of the measures mentioned, lacked in expected professionalism,” the Broadcasting Authority said.

The PL had complained that the programme was unbalanced and the statistics unveiled by the presenter were never intended for serious analysis but partisan.

While the Broadcasting Authority stressed that it had no control over the timing of the commencement of the programme as MP Charles Muscat could not make it from the beginning as Opposition Leader was still addressing parliament, it commented however on the content.

The Broadcasting Authority said it had “reservations” over the content of the features which were aired, most especially the statistical table that analysed the impact of the PL’s proposals to counter the 2011 Budget.

“Although the Authority believes that a journalist has every right to critically analyse proposals made by political parties, on the other hand the Authority insists that this must be done with a sense of justice and in a professional manner,” the BA concluded.