Court says PBS, Broadcasting Authority breached PN's human rights after not airing Sofia inquiry parliament vote

Public broadcaster PBS and its regulator, the Broadcasting Authority breached the Nationalist Party’s fundamental rights by failing to broadcast footage from inside and outside parliament when the motion calling for a public inquiry into the death of JP sofia was defeated on July 12, 2023.

This was the substance of a judgement handed down by Mr. Justice Lawrence Mintoff, presiding the Civil Court in its Constitutional Jurisdiction earlier today. The judge ordered the BA and PBS to each pay €2,000 by way of compensation for the fundamental rights breach.

In order to avoid any attempts to spin the decision, the judge also ordered that a “faithful summary” of the court decision be prominently broadcast on PBS, during the 8pm news bulletin, no later than a week from the day when the judgement becomes final.

The PN had filed a judicial protest in July 2023, asking the court to condemn the actions of PBS and the BA, and to stop them from “perpetuating the censorship of anything critical against Prime Minister Robert Abela, which has persisted for years”.

The plaintiffs claimed that PBS had refused to broadcast footage of the unprecedented scenes both inside and outside parliament on 12 July 2023, after the government had voted against a public inquiry into Sofia’s death at a construction site.

Before that, the PN had filed a complaint with the Broadcasting Authority, which while ruling that PBS ought to have reported those events, did not order it to comply.

This behaviour was ruled to be both discriminatory and a violation of the BA and PBS’s duties under the constitution and other laws. The failure to provide an effective remedy was also declared to breach Article 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

There had been at least three instances where the BA rejected the PN’s complaints about PBS in vain. “In truth, this Court says that the only conclusion that can be drawn from all this, is the the defendant company, which has important duties as a public broadcaster, attempts to hide from the public those instances where the Authority has given a decision against it…”

Neither had PBS provided good reasons for its actions which had led to imbalance in the reporting on a newsworthy event of considerable importance.

Lawyer Paul Borg Olivier represented the PN in the proceedings.

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