Blogger no more, Bondì closes blog after ministry 'reprimand'

Bondiplus presenter Lou Bondì has announced on his personal blog he will not be blogging any longer, citing time constraints on his newly discovered passion.

The 'closure' of his short-lived blog - Snoop Dogg's dissing of a Times journalist last July inspired him to enter the blogosphere he once derided as the land for chatterboxes, or pecluqa - comes hot on the heels of a request by the education minister to regulate himself in his blogposts.

Education Minister Dolores Cristina confirmed on Sunday that she asked Bondiplus presenter Lou Bondì to refrain from blogging on issues which could affect the Public Broadcasting Services in any way.

In the past, the Broadcasting Authority was asked by Labour to impress upon the Public Broadcasting Services its legal obligation to see that its current affairs presenters are seen as politically impartial.

Labour MP Gino Cauchi had complained to the BA saying that Bondì often attacked Labour leader Joseph Muscat in his blogposts, when at the same time he presented a current affairs programme on public broadcaster PBS.

Bondì's role as presenter on PBS was further questioned by the Opposition's spokesman for media Gino Cauchi when, in an interview broadcast on Net TV, Bondì said he would be voting PN in the forthcoming general election.

Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando had also launched a scathing attack on Bondì, telling One TV programme Inkontri that people like him, Daphne Caruana Galizia, media consultant Fr Joe Borg and Times columnist Andrew Borg Cardona were doing "incalculable harm" to the Nationalist Party.

Bondì's blogs often mixed his political observations with a furious denigration of government critics and Labour MPs, and his blunt style often jarred with his role as the presenter of one of PBS's leading current affairs programmes.

In the process, he often spoke out against his own critics, like European Commissioner John Dalli, who insists Bondì used his programme to discredit him and hasten his resignation in 2004.