The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) should not be controlled by the government, media expert Fr Joe Borg said on Friday.

In a discussion hosted by the MCAST institute for Creative arts, Borg said that all previous reforms pushed for the bettering of the PBS in Malta have failed and that is why in a book written together with media lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia, they are recommending the introduction of the Swedish model.

The book entitled 'Reforming Malta's Media Landscape' is co-authored by Father Joe Borg and Therese Comodini Cachia. The book has been published in light of the ongoing media reforms. A Committee of experts had been set up to review a number of bills proposed by government, and also to come up with proposals on how to implement the recommendations of the inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

Mcast journalism degree students present asked questions.

Borg said that since people know that PBS is owned by the government, they have the perception that it should be controlled by the government and that “it does what the government says”. He added that this should not be the case when it’s a public service and should reign in partiality.

On her part, Comodini Cachia said that she is in “awe of people who are journalists and other media actors”. She said that what the book is proposing is for better protection to journalists, “so they can better serve the right of the citizen for better access to information”.

She added that journalists should be respected for doing their job and that they should not be personally attacked by people for doing their job. She said it is not the first time that a journalist published a particular piece of writing which has a high public interest and that “in the comments section, they were personally attacked”.

In the book's conclusions, the authors put forward 16 proposals for media system reforms.