The Islamic State is on Malta’s doorstep and international media report that they are on the brink launching a full-scale attack against Europe, and yet the Public Broadcasting Station’s most popular discussion programme chooses to talk about a man’s alleged visions of the supernatural and a book on sexual pleasures, now turned into a movie.

It’s not that any serious discussion can take place on Xarabank, given the format of the programme and the presenter’s penchant for stopping people in mid-sentence. Since its inception, intelligent debates on this particular platform have been like grandpa’s teeth – few and far between. The rest were shouting matches, incoherent talk and vulgarity – which is the dictionary translation of hamallagni.

That, year after year, this programme continues to be the most watched on all Maltese TV stations is the perfect example of the country’s average low intelligence. If, as it is said, more than half the adult population is hooked on it each Friday, then I fear the result of any test that could be carried out on Malta’s collective IQ.

But it’s not only Xarabank. It seems that orders have arrived from somewhere towards the top that PBS discussion programmes should not give too much importance to the Islamic State and whatever it involves. And so we’ve had programmes about corruption in football – and making it seem that it has only been discovered now – and Carnival issues – again, making it seem that this was the first year that it was held during a rainy month. But not about terror threats.

All this is in line with the stand taken by the government to play down any danger the country could be facing. We’re not in the line of fire, the government repeatedly said. We’re not a target for terrorists, Prime Minister Muscat constantly said. What the government says, PBS follows, so much so that anything to do with the Islamic State and the general reaction to it have been given little importance on the national broadcasting station.

Now that the Prime Minister has suddenly moved from “there is no danger” to “we must be prepared”, maybe things will change. But I have my doubts, given that even this statement was played down.

The same tactic is being used in other media, which has chosen, at worst, to ignore the issue altogether or, at best, skim the surface. But other media can do what they like because they are private enterprises with their own agenda. The Malta Independent speaks about other media only when the first stone is thrown towards us, as happened in recent weeks when The Times attacked our decision to name a priest accused of sexual abuse and lately when it accused us of trying to cause alarm just because we were reporting on terror threats close to home. Perhaps now that their ice-bucket friend across the street – I know I’ve used this phrase already – has said that Malta needs to be prepared for any eventuality they will be tempted to follow. We also have a right to defend ourselves, as we did when MaltaToday attacked us on the social media and in their own newspaper these past few days for exploring one side of the oil procurement story they had conveniently left out.

But an exception must be made with PBS, which runs on taxpayers’ money and therefore has a duty towards the whole population in general.

PBS is not fulfilling its role in this respect. Hiding what is happening, or camouflaging it to such an extent that it would seem that the Islamic State is just a group of unruly boys with catapults is a great disservice to the paying public.