Moviment Iva adverts turned down by PN secretary-general
PN-owned media turned down paid adverts promoting divorce and printed anti-divorce ads free of charge, Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando says.
Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando has stated that a request for the publication of adverts in PN media was turned down by PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier.
Pullicino Orlando was reiterating claims that the anti-divorce movement Zwieg bla Divorzju was benefiting from free services from the Nationalist Party. The movement has denied the allegation, which Pullicino Orlando made yesterday in a strong reaction to questions by a PN journalist over the production of Moviment Iva television spots by Labour-owned One Productions.
"I personally asked Paul Borg Olivier to give us a paid prime time adverts on NET TV (before NET news), and he turned us down. I personally spoke to Joe Cassar, deputy editor of Il-Mument, and asked him to forward a request for paid adverts in Media.Link papers and he later informed me that this request was turned down.
“After having seen adverts for the anti-divorce camp on Media.Link papers yesterday morning I called Mr Cassar asking him to try to rectify this imbalance. He promised to speak to Dr Paul Borg Olivier about the issue today as he was apparently abroad. I reconrmed this request after yesterday’s press conference.”
Speaking during a Moviment Iva press conference on Tuesday, Pullicino Orlando slammed the “insinuations” of the question by the Media.Link journalist.
He said that he felt it was unacceptable that the PN media tried to allege some sort of ‘connection’ between the Labour Party and the Moviment Iva, when the PN media had turned down paid advertising promoting the introduction of divorce.
Pullicino Orlando also said that the PN media was printing advertising for the anti-divorce camp free of charge. “It is not acceptable for the party we both form part of to be preferential in this way,” he told the journalist.
Pullicino Orlando said that he had requested that advertising be carried within the PN media both with Media.Link management, and PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier.
Responding to the journalist’s question, Labour MP Evarist Bartolo said that the Moviment Iva’s TV spots involved the production and filming contribution of both PN and PL supporters.