Updated | Broadcasting Authority finds PBS guilty of media imbalance complaint

The Broadcasting Authority found two cases of media imbalance in a complaint brought by the Labour Party against the Public Broadcasting Services.

The BA did not order a remedy for the PL, but said PBS will be required to read a summary of its decision. On its part, PBS has declared it will contest the BA decision in the Maltese courts.

Labour said in a statement that the party had long been drawing the attention of the BA to the "unacceptable shortcomings" in the PBS newsroom and other programmes produced by the national broadcaster.

"This attitude does not bode well as the elections get closer, with indications showing that PBS will be used for partisan means," the PL said in a statement.

The two news items concerned a report on the creative economy industry and the way both government and Opposition statements were covered, and the visit by Opposition leader Joseph Muscat to the cooperatives board, which was not covered.

The PL accused PBS of not reporting Labour's creative economy industry policy document and seminar the party had organised on 3 August in its evening bulletins, despite sending over a television crew to cover the event.

The PL also said Labour's visit to the cooperative boards, which dealt with a policy statement on cooperatives, was not reported while the visit of the Prime Minister to a private school that same day was reported.

Labour party president Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi said the exclusion of these reports indicating a system of conduct in which visits by the Labour leader were not being included in the PBS bulletins.

On his part, PBS head of news Natalino Fenech told Labour in correspondence that coverage of a press conference dealing with Labour's national congress was reported, insisting that this had more news value than the cooperatives item.

Fenech and PBS legal counsel Therese Commodini Cachia, who will be running for the general elections on the PN ticket, argued in their representations that Labour's protest was intended at reducing the PBS bulletin to a notice-board that reports all political party activities.

Fenech argued that the law indicates that the selection of news items depended exclusively on the news values and the fact that a TV crew was on sit did not automatically mean the news item would be carried in the news bulletin.

Fenech also drew attention to the distinction made between party activities such as the cooperatives board meeting, and insisted that PBS does not report similar meetings the prime minister holds with constituted bodies - meetings which also include the presence of Commodini Cachia, who accompanies Lawrence Gonzi in his encounters with civil society groups.

Fenech said the prime minister's visit to the school, which was inaugurating a new extension, also dealt with the government's investment in education.

The Broadcasting Authority said that in the case of the creative industry seminar, the PBS crew were called away from the seminar to cover the arrival of asylum seekers that had been rescued by the AFM. It also said the report was carried the day after in the 2pm and 4pm updated bulletins.

The BA however said Labour's creative industry seminar could have been included in a 7 August bulletin which dealt with the government's publication of a consultation document on the creative economy.

The BA also found imbalance in the way Muscat's visit to the cooperatives board was only reported on 16 August, a week after the event, in one sentence as part of another story.

The PBS said in a statement it will contest the BA decision.

"This decision does not make sense. PBS has been found guilty of imbalance when it in fact reported the events.

"PBS contends that the criterion to be used in news broadcasting is whether the news is indeed new and has value. Labour's proposal for a cooperatives bank followed one already announced by the government, so this did not have immediate news value; although TVM [the PBS channel] does not broadcast party meetings, it still broadcast the meeting between Muscat and the cooperatives board. The BA is not correct in giving this item the same weight that a national policy has."