The Broadcasting Authority today censured Xarabank for the way its 6 June programme in which it discussed the case of a man who was imprisoned following alleged false testimony, saying that the complaint raised by the lawyer defending the man’s former wife was justified.

In its decision, the authority said that the programme in question went beyond the limits that should not have been surpassed and the way it was conducted could have led viewers to come to wrong conclusions about persons which were not there to defend themselves.

The BA said that Xarabank should be more careful in future on the way it presents similar stories to viewers.

Speaking to The Malta Independent this evening, Dr Martin Fenech – the woman’s lawyer – said that he had filed a complaint because the programme as it was conducted was one-sided and harmful to his client.

Asked whether he had been offered a right of reply, Dr Fenech said that he and his client were not interested in this. All we wanted to bring to the public’s attention is the biased way the programme had been conducted.

The Malta Independent website had published several stories in this sense before the programme had been aired.

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