Peppi Azzopardi defends Xarabank’s record of impartiality

The presenter of TVM's longest running talk-show Xarabank, has surmised that a new Labour government would remove the Where's Everybody flagship from the national broadcaster's schedule.

In an interview for radio presenter Andrew Azzopardi's blog, Peppi Azzopardi - long held to be a media darling of the Nationalist administration by his critics - hinted at the inevitable for his Friday evening talk-show if Labour were to be elected to power.

"Jason Micallef wrote that should Labour be elected, whoever runs national broadcasting must remove me and prohibit me from doing other programmes for PBS," Azzopardi said.

"And so far, a report in Il-Mument that said he would have a high position inside the national broadcaster has never been denied... so what do you think will happen? So much for Labour's meritocracy."

Azzopardi, whose communication skills were put at the service of the Nationalist party in a bid to coach Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando throughout the 2008 general election, refuted claims that Xarabank tended to favour the Nationalist party.

"In 14 years Xarabank was never found guilty of imbalanced broadcasting by the Broadcasting Authority... name one programme in which we favoured the PN. Now if the PN performs better on certain issues that's not Xarabank's problem, just as on other issues Labour performs better.

"But if we as a team tend to have a position that favours irregular migration and corresponds to the Prime Minister's stand, that's a coincidence. Much as it was coincidental that our stand in favour of divorce was in agreement with Muscat's, or that we didn't agree with his stand on European accession."

Labour had previously disassociated itself from the comments by the former PL secretary-general, who today heads Labour TV station One. "Jason Micallef is not responsible for drafting Labour's policies. What he said is his personal opinion and should be interpreted as just that," a party spokesperson had said.

Micallef had written on l-orizzont that Azzopardi's "blatant" political involvement made him unsuitable to present current affairs programmes on the public broadcasting services' television station.

"Let us no longer beat around the bush, and I want to make it clear. Should there be a Labour government after the next general election, those entrusted with the running of PBS should ensure that Joe Azzopardi is removed from the national station."