One TV Chairman Jason Micallef has been found in contempt of court and fined €100 after failing to appear in Lovin Malta’s case to declare propaganda on party stations unconstitutional.

Micallef was formally notified that he would be required to testify in today’s case but failed to appear. The court ordered him to be hit with a €100 fine and issued a warrant for officers to accompany him to ensure his presence at the next hearing.

In today’s sitting, MP Karl Gouder, representing Net, confirmed that bias existed within the station but insisted it was something prevalent on other similar platforms.

Joanne Spiteri, who authored a thesis on the subject of party media propaganda and would later become CEO at the Broadcasting Authority, also took the stand.

She was asked about the number of times the authority took action of its own accord against stations not adhering to the laws on impartiality. She submitted documentation to the couerts for review.

Spiteri said that when she was Head of the Monitoring Department she flagged an inconsistency between the constitution and the broadcasting laws. However, she confirmed that no changes have been made since then.

Lovin Malta’s court case is challenging the constitutionality of a specific proviso in the Broadcasting Act which allows for party stations to be partial in reporting on news and current affairs in breach of the constitution

The Constitution obliges the Broadcasting Authority to ensure that TV stations preserve due impartiality in matters of political or industrial controversy “as much as possible”.

It also obliges the BA to ensure that broadcasting facilities and time are fairly apportioned between people belonging to different political parties.

However, the Broadcasting Act of 1991 includes a loophole that allows the BA to circumvent this requirement when regulating political party media, with a proviso allowing the authority to monitor impartiality among private TV stations “by looking at the general output of current affairs programmes across all licensees as a whole.”

The case was filed jointly by Lovin Malta, which is being represented by CEO David Grech and COO Bettina Falzon, and former CEO Chris Peregin in his personal capacity. Peregin has since joined the Nationalist Party.

A website, Kaxxaturi.com, has also been set up to explain the details of the case and why Lovin Malta decided to open it in the first place.

Lawyers Eve Borg Costanzi and Matthew Cutajar are representing Lovin Malta.

State Attorney Chris Soler and James D’Agostino are appearing for the state, while Pawlu Lia is appearing for ONE and Paul Borg Olivier and Veronica Perici Calascione for Media.Link. Communications Ltd.

Judge Ian Spiteri Bailey is presiding over the case.

What do you think of Micallef missing the sitting?