PBS censors satirical clip making fun of politicians

The clip in question portrayed AD’s former chairman Arnold Cassola ‘finally’ winning something at the expense of the other two parties. The incident took place during this week’s edition of ZOO’s satirical programme ‘VIPShow’, when a three-minute segment was ‘blacked out’ of the programme without any warning or explanation.

The censored clip was available for viewing on Youtube until Tuesday, represents a spoof quiz show in which contestants are invited to throw shoes at images of Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, Opposition leader Jopseph Muscat and President of the Republic George Abela – a clear parody of the famous ‘shoe-throwing incident’, involving former US President George Bush and an Iraqi journalist, at a Baghdad press conference two years ago.

On the spoof version in VIPShow, the final contestant happened to be the Green Party’s EU spokesman, Arnold Cassola.

In order to make sure he ‘won’ the quiz, the targets were brought forward right up to his panel, so that all he had to do was knock them over with the shoe without actually throwing it.

The entire episode was replete with references to Alternattiva Demokratika’s repeated failure to ever win any ‘serious’ political contests, making the butt of the joke very clear to all viewers: the Green Party needs all the help it can get to overcome its political rivals.

VIPShow producer (and presenter) Chrysander Agius yesterday confirmed that ZOO had nothing to do with the decision to censor the programme.

“There’s nothing to explain,” he said when contacted yesterday. “They didn’t want that part to be aired, and I didn’t want Arnold Cassola to think that we had cut it out ourselves. As far as we are concerned there was nothing at all wrong with the clip; on the contrary,we purposely did it in such a way to make it look like AD ‘took over’ for once…”

But TVM evidently failed to appreciate the satire, and in its zeal to remove it from the show indulged in what can only be described as sloppy editing.

“You should see how skillfully they edited it out,” Agius sarcastically remarked. “Just fade to black… they let it pass, and boom! Back up!”

On his part, Cassola told MaltaToday that the incident shows how little progress we have achieved in public broadcasting over the years.

“This kind of attitude shows how backward we still are when it comes to humour, and how politicians are still considered ‘untouchables’ in Malta. Can you imagine a similar incident happening in countries like France, with its satirical newspaper le Canard, or Italywith Striscia La Notizia?”

Cassola pointed out that the clip actually exposed himself and AD to ridicule, and not the bigger parties at all.

“The whole point of the clip was to make fun of myself and AD: that we are a small party, and so on. I myself was belittled by the joke, but so what? It’s just a joke, and we can take it…”

Cassola added that the political set-up of the Broadcasting Authority makes political censorship of this nature all but inevitable..

“This is sort of thing we can continue to expect, so long as the BA’s board members  remains appointed by the two parties. It doesn’t matter that they are intelligent and conscientious people; if they feel they are answerable to the two parties, this is what will continue to happen.”