Maltese MP Predicts The End Is Nigh For Both NET And ONE: ‘Times Are Changing’
Political party-owned TV stations have been part of Malta’s broadcasting landscape for a few decades, but Nationalist MP Chris Said predicts this won’t last for much longer.
“Times are changing and I believe the days of party-owned TV stations will come to an end in the not-so-distant future,” Said told Illum in an interview. “Political parties must find other less costly means to get their message across and there are a number of ways they can do this.”
“It won’t be long before the parties agree to take this step.”
The Labour Party launched ONE TV in 1993 and the Nationalist Party followed suit with NET TV five years later.
Political party media appears to fly in the face of Malta’s Constitution, which obliges the Broadcasting Authority to ensure TV stations preserve “due impartiality in respect of matters of political or industrial controversy”. However, the BA has typically not enforced this law against ONE and NET on the grounds that their political propaganda balance each other out.
Meanwhile, the public has no way of assessing their financial state of play as Media.Link, the company which runs NET, has last filed its accounts in 2003/04 while ONE Productions has last filed theirs back in 2010.
This is despite the law requiring companies to keep proper accounting records and deliver a copy of their annual accounts, along with an auditors’ and directors’ report, to the Malta Business Registry every year.
In December 2019, the PN formally proposed abolished political party-owned media and turning PBS into a fully independent public broadcaster, monitored by a Broadcasting Authority whose chairman and board members are appointed through a two-thirds parliamentary vote so as to ensure they enjoy the trust of both major parties.
“Public broadcasting should be fully independent and should aim to inform, educate and entertain all strata of society,” the PN said. “It must ensure that everyone’s viewpoints are broadcast in a balanced, whole and free manner, with no obstruction and in full respect to the fundamental rights of expression and association.”
“It must ensue a level playing field through a dedicated space for broadcasting from political parties and social partners. When this is implemented, political parties will no longer require their own broadcasting licenses.”
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