Watch: Simon Busuttil Wants ONE And NET To Close Down In Major Public TV Revamp
Former PN leader Simon Busuttil said that ONE and NET should ideally close down, with political parties given proper space on the national broadcaster.
In an interview with Miirko Sant on Leħnek, Busuttil said that he doesn’t believe the system of politically-owned media houses has worked in Malta and warned they cause “unnecessary division”.
He pinned the lion’s share of the blame on the Labour Party’s ONE TV, “because the party in government should lead by example”, but admitted that the PN’s NET TV “is not a virgin either”.
“I don’t blame the opposition party for not giving up its TV station if there isn’t a fair alternative,” he said, “The government needs to change the system and offer political parties fair space on the public broadcaster as happens in other countries.”
“Why should political parties have to get into debt to run TV stations to ensure they have a voice? Can’t they be given a voice on the public broadcaster, which we ultimately fund through our taxes, to ensure we can hear the full picture? However, the government wants to control everything.”
“Until we have decency and people who lead by example, we cannot close them down. But do I agree? Yes, in an ideal world, we won’t have party-owned TV stations but public TV stations that give you the full picture and the possibility of independent media that can criticise and attack whoever it wants. That is the ideal situation and we are far away from it.”
In 2021, Lovin Malta and former CEO Chris Peregin filed a constitutional case challenging the constitutionality of a proviso in the Broadcasting Act which allows the regulator not to monitor political party-owned TV stations for impartiality. The case is still ongoing.
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