The news that seven TVM journalists have taken Public Broadcasting Services before an industrial tribunal over claims of salary discrimination is a new low for the station that is financed by taxpayers’ money.

PBS has often been in the news for the wrong reasons, and mostly because of the strange way it is being run and how it chooses to report everyday happenings.

Last week the National Audit Office reported that PBS has accumulated a debt of €3.5 million in the last two and a half years, and the recruitment of so many Taghna Lkoll boys and girls must have contributed to the amount.

Just a few weeks ago, it was reprimanded by the Broadcasting Authority for failing to report the Joe Debono Grech incident in Parliament, the time when the veteran MP pointed his finger at Marlene Farrugia to tell her “Nigi ghalik u nifqghek”.

I do not think that PBS editor Reno Bugeja did not see a news point in this. But he chose to ignore the incident, saying that he preferred to wait until the Speaker’s ruling. It was like deciding not to report a murder and saying that until the killer is caught and brought to justice, a murder is not news.

Twisting reports to show the government in good light has been the order for the day for quite a while, with the latest incident being the way De La Rue’s decision to dismiss 250 workers was camouflaged amid the news of a multi-million euro investment by the company.

Its current affairs programmes are also a damage limitation exercise for the government, with several issues that could be harmful to Labour avoided completely. To mention the latest example, TVAM last week interviewed MCST chairman Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando but there was not one single question made about the National Audit Office report issued a few days earlier saying MCST kept no records of employee attendance.

The Nationalist Party has made it a point to expose all of PBS’ shortcomings which, in its view, show a lack of impartiality, manipulation and interference from Castille, with the latest incident in this regard being the publication of an email sent to Mr Bugeja from Castille. It speaks of a return to the 1980s, a time when PBS was under the grip of the Socialist government to the extent that the name of the then Opposition Leader, Eddie Fenech Adami, was never mentioned.

There is one consolation.

The situation with regard to media is different from what we had in the 1980s. In those days, PBS – then known as Xandir Malta – enjoyed a monopoly on TV and radio, as no privately-owned stations existed. Newspapers were limited to three dailies and three Sunday editions while, of course, no websites existed.

Today, the situation has dramatically changed with so many radio and TV stations, more newspapers and, most of all, news portals. PBS is not as relevant as it used to be in the 1980s, when most of Malta obtained the news via TVM or Radio Malta. People can get their news from so many other sources these days.

Added to the many newsrooms that provide constant information, there is then the social media that is also a powerful tool when it comes to the dissemination of news.

PBS today is much less influential than it used to be in the 1980s. And, with a credibility that continues to spiral downwards to new depths with each day that passes, it is no wonder that the number of viewers of the 8pm news goes down between one survey and the next.