Updated | Tonio Portughese set for PBS top job

Tonio Portughese is the favourite to land the Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) top job, and replace Joe Mizzi as chairman.

Portughese, the human resources development manager at ST Microelectronics, is set to take the job following weeks of speculation over changes at PBS.

Playwright and former PBS chairman Albert Marshall, who was named among the possible candidates for the station's chairmanship, is set to become deputy chairman, while veteran journalist Reno Bugeja will replace Natalino Fenech as head of news.

Meanwhile, it is being reported that the new PBS board will include former Nationalist MP and St Philip's Hospital owner Frank Portelli, lawyer and newspaper columnist Claire Bonello and former Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Malta Tony Cassar Darien.

Following the 9 March election, PBS falls under the responsability of home affairs minister Manuel Mallia who has publicly stated that the national broadcaster needed to change the way it operates.

To date there has been no indication whether the station's CEO, Anton Attard, who in the past headed the Nationalist Party's television station and was heavily involved in the 2008 PN electoral campaign, would be keeping his job or not.

Porthugese, a director of PBS in the early nineties, has vast experience both in Malta as well as abroad.  He is a lecturer in management and is the author of a number of books and publications. Portughese also served as chairman of the Industrial Tribunal and chairman of the ETC.