‘We’ve Become A Government Noticeboard’: TVM Journalists Speak Out About Lack Of Balance At PBS
Malta’s public broadcaster TVM has become like a “government noticeboard” with little opportunity for journalists to carry out investigative work and to follow stories that upset the powers that be, TVM journalists have said.
In recent weeks, the Broadcasting Authority has, on a number of occasions, decided against the public broadcaster following complaints of impartiality filed by the Nationalist Party.
The PBS newsroom, which since July 2020 has been headed by journalist Norma Saliba, has been found guilty of a lack of impartiality in its reporting, or lack thereof, of politically sensitive matters of national interest.
Now, journalists who work for the national broadcaster, or have worked for it in the past, have told the Times of Malta they were allowed to do little “proper” journalism and were discouraged from pursuing stories that might reflect badly on the government.
“We cannot work on proper stories because the TVM news bulletin has become a government noticeboard,” one journalist speaking on condition of anonymity told the paper.
They said that rather than carrying out proper investigations, their work was limited to “he said, she said” reporting, leading to a lack of enthusiasm among journalists.
The journalists who spoke to the newspaper also said they were not consulted about the change in programming announced last month, which will see the state broadcaster left with hardly any news content.
In comments to the Times, PBS executive chairman Mark Sammut insisted that the PBS newsroom was fully autonomous and regulated by strict broadcasting rules.
The same regulations the Broadcasting Authority has found PBS to have breached time and time again.
“We have some of the most competent and hard-working journalists on the island. Among them are also award-winning journalists so I cannot agree with your statement that there is no proper journalism at TVM,” Sammut told the Times.
Earlier this month, presenter Mark Laurence Zammit said he had quit his TV show L-Erbgħa Fost il-Ġimgħa due to alleged interference by PBS in the content of his show.
Political interference at the national broadcaster is not a new phenomenon, and it has been largely accepted that its reporting will tend to favour whichever party is in government.
This unspoken rule is yet another example of the need for reform across Malta’s broadcasting sector, including PBS and both political party stations.
Earlier this year Lovin Malta filed Constitutional proceedings arguing that a law approved by Parliament in 1991 allowing the Broadcasting Authority not to enforce impartiality rules on political party stations goes against the Constitution.
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