PBS toying with legal action against Labour over TV spot

The Public Broadcasting Services said it is seeking legal advice to see what steps it can take against the Labour Party over claims that it is airing a "deceitful advert" which manipulates quotes by TVM's Head of News Natalino Fenech.

The advert, being shown on One TV, takes Fenech to task by stringing comments he made on a 50^th anniversary documentary of PBS, to convey the message that the state broadcaster is biased in favour of the Nationalist government.

"The Labour advert took out of context comments made by Dr Fenech in the 50th anniversary documentary and completely changed the meaning of what was being said, for [Labour's] political ends," PBS said.

In his original comment, Fenech speaks about the way news on TVM had changed, in which he makes the point that news was not necessarily about balance but about reporting what is new, by way of justifying the fact that even TVM excludes government and other political activities from its bulletins if they say nothing new.

"Labour left everything out other than the comment that 'balance in the news did not exist'," PBS said.

The Labour spot also claims that the national broadcaster is controlled by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and takes to task editorial board chairman Joe Pirotta and PBS chief executive Anton Attard, a former PN electoral manager.

PBS has also asked the Broadcasting Authority to stop One TV from broadcasting the video.

"The Labour Party at the moment has TVM in its sights. These attacks have nothing to do with [news] balance but because of TVM's increasing [sic] audiences," PBS said.

Labour MP Gino Cauchi last week hit out at the Public Broadcasting Services in a dissection of what he called its "politically biased agenda" and "crass reporting" on the current parliamentary stalemate.

"We are seriously concerned that a network has been created inside PBS to help the Nationalist Party," Cauchi said, listing its top officials as being party to an effort to assist the PN in its upcoming electoral campaign. "CEO Anton Attard was formerly chief of Net TV and a main member of the PN's electoral strategy team in 2008; the head of news Natalino Fenech is allowing his political agenda to influence news bulletins; former Net TV journalists and a minister's spokesperson Mario Xuereb has been appointed junior manager for current affairs programmes; and former PN journalist and MEPA board secretary Sylvana Debono is now online content manager," Cauchi said.

On its part, PBS downplayed the accusations by providing a list of employees who were formerly employees at One TV or members of the party executive. These included Joseph Mifsud, who was a former head of news at One TV and a Labour international security, as well as former One TV journalist Maria Muscat and another cameraman. "They were not employed because of their political beliefs, but because of their abilities," PBS said.