Journalist Maria Muscat, known more by her stage name La Barokka, has spoken out about what she described as discrimination, having been prevented from reading news bulletins on TV because of her weight.

During last Sunday’s airing of ‘Ta’ Filghodu’, on TVM, Muscat said this has happened on TVM, the station she works for, and other media with whom she worked in the past.

The programme, presented by Stephanie Spiteri, dealt with obesity and an ongoing discussion about whether the Maltese would be willing to lose weight if the government were to pay them €25 for every kilo they shed.

Muscat stated that she has suffered multiple consequences because of her weight from various television stations. Although she recognises the fact that in most cases, being overweight is not healthy, she refuses to accept discriminatory decisions and behaviour targeting the physical image of a person.

Mentioning her experience as an example, she stated that it took 20 years from the start of her journalistic career for her to be able to read her first news bulletin live on TVM. This only happened last week when other colleagues had been assigned to read the 8pm news bulletin just months after starting their journalism career with TVM.

Although the wait came to an end a few weeks ago, when she read the 8pm news bulletin for the very first time, she said that she feels hurt by such drastic decisions and stated that this should not be happening because, as long as the bulletin is being read and transmitted in the best possible way, extra weight should not be an issue.