The national broadcasting station PBS has chosen to ignore a damning report issued by the European Banking Authority, which slammed the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit of breaching anti-money laundering rules in its handling of Pilatus Bank.

PBS later however found time and space to report the terse reply issued by the FIAU in which the authority expressed its disappointment about the report.

But readers of the TVM website were left in the dark on what the EBA report concluded and what its recommendations were. Not one single line of the EBA report was carried by the national broadcasting station’s website.

Followers of the Thursday 8pm news bulletin on TVM – which is the most followed programme in Malta – were also not informed about the development because there was no mention of the EBA report which had been issued a couple of hours earlier.

The 8pm news bulletin on TVM did not carry the FIAU reaction because at the time it had not yet been published. But the EBA report had been issued before 6pm, two hours before the news bulletin was aired, giving ample time for it to be carried.

The PBS approach is similar to what Labour media did, but in this case it is to be expected that the PL media attempt to cover up any news that could harm the party in government.

It should be a different story for a station run on taxpayers’ money, but it’s not the first time the PBS chose to gatekeep reports that could negatively affect the government.