The end of Bondiplus

There will be no more Bondiplus in the upcoming winter schedule, as the Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) did not accept it - neither for TVM nor TVM2.

As the new schedules of all the main TV stations were announced, Bondiplus did not feature anywhere.

In the past years, veteran journalist Lou Bondì was the subject of numerous controversies, having been accused of hosting biased discussions in his programmes in favour of the Nationalist Party.

He was formerly an information manager of the Nationalist Party before the party lost re-election in 1996.

Many of his detractors accused Bondì of using his primetime PBS current affairs programme of propping up the Nationalist government, and targeting government critics.

He was loved and hated in equal measure, but the scale of the popular discomfort he elicited was manifested when audiences booed Bondì during his surprise appearance by the side of guitar legend Santana, during his concert in Malta.

A recent controversy came in mid-June, when the Where's Everybody director was appointed on a government board responsible for the organisation and coordination of national festivities.

Labour MEP Joseph Cuschieri later described the appointment a "shameful decision" and an "open challenge to people of good will."

When questioned about why his programme had been turned down, Bondì said:

"That is a question you have to ask the relevant TV stations, in this case PBS."

He also refused to say what programmes he had proposed and whether he had submitted a proposal for other programmes besides Bondiplus, saying this information was "commercially sensitive".

The Bondiplus programme originated from the Bondicini investigative journalism programme, which was co-presented by Bondi and former PL candidate Simone Cini in 2001.

Bondiplus was a long-running show on national, public television. Last year, it was aired live twice a week, but this was reduced to once after the Labour government was elected last March.