Updated: BA orders NET to broadcast right of reply after report on EP vote on abortion

The right of reply by the PL followed a news item broadcast on NET TV on 18 June 2010 that had claimed that the PL MEPs Edward Scicluna and Louis Grech had voted in favour of a EP report in favour of the introduction of abortion.

In its decision, the BA Board ruled that in this particular case, the content of the PL’s reply was “in conformity with the BA’s own regulations on rights of reply, despite the fact that the reply included some comments which could have been edited”.

“There was no valid reason why these rules were not to be respected,” the BA insisted in its ruling. “The Authority cannot accept that a station interprets legal needs at it deems fit and according to its convenience,” the Authority warned in its ruling, which was published this afternoon.

Hence the BA has accepted the PL’s complaint as justified and ordered NET TV to broadcast the BA’s decision in its entirety not later than three days after the station was notified with the BA’s decision.

In its ruling, the BA explained how a right of reply could not exceed 180 seconds, could not be interpolated with comments by the station, and could not be edited unless the reply was defamatory or offensive.

The meeting when the BA Board discussed this decision was held on Friday 23 July 2010.

Speaking exclusively MaltaToday on Wednesday 23 June 2010, veteran British Labour MEP Michael Cashman – whose two-year report on global poverty had been reduced to a pamphlet ‘in favour of abortion’ by Nationalist MEP David Casa – had dismissed such criticism as ‘narrow’ and a case of ‘political mischief’.

Approved by a majority which included many EPP members, the Cashman report was a collection of over 67 specific proposals to facilitate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals – to which Malta, like all EU member States, in committed to reaching.

These included the financing and implementation of educational programmes in the world’s poorest countries, plans to improve co-ordination of international aid efforts, initiatives to mitigate the effects of climate change, and many other social and political considerations.

But at a press conference the previous Friday, David Casa had seized on one single paragraph (42), which alluded to the need to ensure access to safe abortions, and accused the at his Labour counterparts of ‘voting in favour of abortion’.

In a front-page article the following day, PN-owned newspaper In-Nazzjon dismissed the same report as one that dealt only with ‘the killing of children before they are born’.

“I have not had this reaction in any other country, in or outside the EU,” Cashman said in reaction to both Casa’s comments and the Nazzjon story. “I suspect it is political mischief-making by the PN politicians. It certainly misrepresents the intentions of those who voted in favour of the report, and also misuses the whole issue of abortion.

“But I don’t want to give these people the importance they don’t deserve. I’d rather praise the courage and far-sightedness of Labour MEPs Scicluna and Grech for supporting the motion instead.”

Cashman acknowledged that the issue of female reproductive rights was contentious, but argued that serious and mature politicians should rise above the temptation to score cheap political points when faced with such a serious discussion.

“There are always difficulties that arise when matters of conscience or religion are brought up in the context of a political debate,” the Socialist MEP said. “But if you can wrestle with these issues and do the right thing for the great majority of people, that is what being politics is all about. The easiest thing to do in politics is simply pander to national prejudice.”

He had also insisted that the issue of global poverty was inextricably linked to women’s rights.

“You can’t look at achieving the Millennium Development Goals without also taking into account at the huge number of women who die each year as a result of unsafe abortions. All that we ask for is the prevention of unsafe abortions, as well as giving women rights so that the can do what they themselves want to do... and not what others want them to do,” the Socialist MEP had insisted.

“I understand some hardliners may have a problem with that, just as there may be with our call for contraception. But in the real world you can’t take a selective approach to these complex issues,” Cashman had concluded.