Updated | PBS says BA decision attacks station's editorial independence

Updated with PBS statement at 6:23pm.

The Public Broadcasting Services has registered its disagreement with two Broadcasting Authority decisions that gave Labour leader Joseph Muscat a right of reply of 15 minutes on Xarabank, and a 10-minute reply for the Nationalist party on next Tuesday's Bondiplus.

PBS said it did not have the opportunity to present its submissions to the BA over the right of reply awarded to Joseph Muscat, which was an own-initiative investigation of the interview Xarabank presenter Peppi Azzopardi had with the Prime Minister.

"The PBS not only disagrees with these two decisions, but sees them as a step back for our country's broadcasting as well as an attack on the station's editorial independence.

"The BA is taking a regressive step by demanding balance in every programme. This does not make journalistic sense. It is a mistake for the authority not to allow interview programmes with one personality, when other editions of these programmes host interviews with people of divergent and opposite viewpoints," the station said in a statement.

"This is what happens in other stations where the right to express an opinion is sacrosanct. And it is a pity that the authority is distancing itself from this model that is adopted in all free countries. The PBS believes the authority has to go back to the practice established over the past years and starts measuring balance and impartiality over the entire schedule of the station."

The Nationalist Party has secured a right of reply from the Broadcasting Authority, to have a 10-minute slot on Bondiplus as a retort to statements made by Franco Debono on the same programme on Tuesday last week.

In its complaint to the Broadcasting Authority, the PN asked the BA for a remedy to the criticism made by backbencher Franco Debono towards the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, and the party.

The authority heard submissions from lawyers Karol Aquilina and Frank Psaila, the PN's administrative council president and information director respectively, as well as PBS head of news Natalino Fenech. The sitting was held on Tuesday, 17 January.

The PN's representatives contended that in the extensive interview granted to Franco Debono, the MP made repeated references to the way he was treated by the party and addressed his criticism to the Prime Minister and government ministers without giving the party the opportunity to express its position on Debono's comments.

On its part, the PBS representatives said the PN had not specified which parts of the interview contained this criticism, but that it was ready to consider a right of reply where particular criticism demanded such a remedy.

The PN also announced today it had filed a complaint with One Productions over the last edition of Joe Grima's discussion programme Inkontri, in which the microphone of Nationalist MP Francis Zammit Dimech appeared to be switched off.

"This is an abusive and discriminatory act that creates imbalance in broadcasting and goes against the most elementary principles of democracy and freedom of expression," PN information director Frank Psaila said.

Psaila said that during a break in the programme, Zammit Dimech complained to the programme presenter after having been notified of what was happening by a viewer.