Labour claims PBS imbalance over ‘unusual’ Greece reports

The Labour Party has filed a new complaint with the Broadcasting Authority over claims that the Public Broadcasting Services' news editorial was fanning perceptions that suited the government's agenda in the run-up to Budget 2012.

Labour's communications coordinator Kurt Farrugia said in a letter to BA chairman Anthony Tabone that PBS had sent its reporters to Spain and Greece "simply to build a picture to suit those presenting the Budget."

The complaint refers to overseas assignments by PBS in Athens and Madrid to interview people in the street affected by spending cuts and the sovereign debt crisis in Spain and Greece.

"The PBS newsroom is being used in a partisan manner using the two links to Madrid and Athens where the message was part of a political strategy for the party-in-government to compare the country with troubled eurozone nations, with the aim of pushing the budget debate with agenda-setting measures that go against the spirit of balanced broadcasting," Farrugia said in a separate letter to PBS head of news Natalino Fenech.

Labour is claiming the overseas assignments are reflecting the prime minister's comparisons of Malta's quality of life with that of the Greeks, whose protests and riots have illustrated the economic crisis of the recession-hit state.

Farrugia told Fenech that the "unusual" live reports had accompanied the news bulletins of Sunday 13 November, where finance minister Tonio Fenech was given "major prominence".

Farrugia said that on the other hand, reports concerning the upcoming budget and the Labour party are given less importance, and no comment is sought from the party's three spokespersons on the economy.

"While the finance minister was invited to speak on the budget and given the opportunity to express political points that push the government line in preparation for his speech... this was not contrasted in any way [and] Labour's opinion did not feature anywhere in the PBS feature," Farrugia told Fenech in his complaint.

Farrugia said the only report reserved for Labour had been Sunday's morning broadcast by Opposition leader Joseph Muscat, which was also contrasted with the Prime Minister's own broadcast that same day.

Labour has asked the Broadcasting Authority to take proactive measures and ensure a redress for the alleged imbalance inside the PBS newsroom. "That the BA simply takes note of this complaint is not enough. The Authority must be proactive and ensure this attitude is changed immediately, to the benefit of the taxpayer that pays for this station, which does not serve the people but simply to run propaganda for the Nationalist government."

Labour also asked Natalino Fenech to provide the party with an urgent remedy and see that the balance in broadcasting is restored throughout the coming days. "The public has a right to a public broadcasting that serves as a balanced means of information and not as a propaganda tool financed by their taxes."