PN condemns ‘biased’ PBS power station coverage

The Nationalist Party has filed another complaint against the Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) on grounds of bias towards the government, this time for its coverage of the Delimara gas power station project on Friday. 

In a letter to PBS head of news Reno Bugeja, the PN complained at how the public broadcaster gave more prominence to Friday’s feature on the ongoing power station works than it had to a controversial €360 million state guarantee granted to the consortium behind the project.

“The fact that PBS chose to broadcast the power station feature on Friday, in the midst of a controversy over the state guarantee, continues to confirm how it is being manipulated by the government,” PN director of information Matthew Bonett wrote to Bugeja. “Although the state guarantee dominated last week’s political agenda, PBS didn’t treat the news with as much importance as it had to Friday’s power station ‘exclusive’, which was featured as their main news item.

“Moreover, PBS didn’t even refer to the state guarantee in their feature on the power station.”

In a statement, Opposition MP Clyde Puli also questioned why PBS’ Friday feature had included comments from energy minister Konrad Mizzi, but none from the Opposition.

“This goes completely against the principle of balanced reporting that the public broadcaster should apply,” Puli said. “PBS has become the Labour government’s puppet, controlled by an agenda set by Castille.”