The chief executive of the Broadcasting Authority (BA), Dr Kevin Aquilina, told The Malta Independent on Sunday that “the Authority welcomes the appointment of an Editorial Board at PBS Ltd”.

“You will remember,” he continued, “that our chairman (Chief Justice emeritus Joseph Said Pullicino) is on record as having stated, in the Authority’s latest annual report, that in his opinion it is absolutely necessary that current affairs programmes are controlled by an independent, reliable and competent editorial board. This would be directly answerable to management regarding programme content as well as balance and impartiality which it would be responsible to ensure.

“The agenda of current affairs programmes has, in his opinion, to be determined by the Editorial Board and not by anybody else. The Editorial Board should be guided by a Public Code of Conduct that ensures transparency and accountability in its operations and that would provide an internal effective complaints redress procedure where needed.

“Public Broadcasting Services has the right and the duty to offer space for the free debate of current affairs and politics. However, they do not have the right to adopt a political stance of their own.

On her part, Helena Dalli, the Opposition’s spokesperson on PBS, told The Malta Independent on Sunday that the appointment of a new editorial board at PBS raises various questions.

“Who will the board report to? How will the board be held accountable? How can we scrutinise its criteria? To me it’s all very arbitrary,” she said.

Ms Dalli was speaking in her personal capacity since the Labour Party executive has not taken an official stand on the matter.

Asked how the PBS editorial board was going to tackle matters of political controversy in the company’s news bulletins and maintain a balance between different viewpoints as required by the Constitution, Fr Joe Borg told The Malta Independent on Sunday: “Today most people feel that not only has politics gained too much importance in our lives but also that there is too much politics on the news bulletins. Most people believe in a sense of fairness that insists on providing space for all different opinions to be be aired.

“The Constitution, no less, reflects these positive sentiments. The law obliges broadcasters to be balanced and impartial in matters of political controversies, industrial controversies and current public policy.

“The Broadcasting Authority has just published guidelines, which should give us fairer and more sensible broadcasting. It says that news on one station should not be balanced by news on another station and that a news bulletin should not look like a notice board.

“The Editorial Board will do its utmost so that the aspirations of the Maltese for fairness and the demands of the law for the same are respected. The Editorial Board will help PBS continue, as it is doing, to respect these legal obligation.

“The Board will do this through the professional exercise of the functions of the News Manager and the rest of the news staff. The Editorial Board will also do this by protecting the staff in their exercise of their service to the public,” Fr Borg said.

Ms Dalli was not so optimistic about the balance of the new editorial board.

“I do not think it is balanced and it is not representative of trends in an open society. Is this the government’s idea of diversity of thought and pluralism? Surely the Board should be more representative of the various sectors such as the political, the social partners and civil society,” she said.

Does the Opposition have faith that with the new editorial board, the various cases of imbalance raised by Labour against PBS news will diminish?

“The Opposition will monitor what goes on and respond accordingly,” said Ms Dalli.

Asked whether he perceived the PBS editorial board to be in conflict with the BA board, Fr Borg said: “I look forward to fruitful dialogue and constructive co-operation with the Broadcasting Authority. The aims of the BA and the Editorial Board are very similar: broadcasting is there to serve the public and no-one else.

“I personally have very good relations with the BA. The same can be said of the other members of the Editorial Board (Prof. Dominic Fenech and Dr Mary Anne Lauri). One of them (Prof. Fenech) was a member

of the Authority and both have served on

the Authority’s committee for Ethics and Quality.

A similar view was expressed by Dr Aquilina: “No, I do not perceive the PBS Editorial Board to be in conflict with the Broadcasting Authority. I consider them to be complementary.”

Will the Editorial Board abide by the Broadcasting Authority’s guidelines and the BA board’s decisions?

“A few months ago I invited Dr Kevin Aquilina for two meetings with the PBS newsroom staff. In these meetings he explained the guidelines and Codes of the BA. These guidelines should be the basis of our news operations,” Fr Borg said.

The BA chief executive was categorical in this respect.

“Yes, the PBS Editorial Board has to abide by the Constitution of Malta, the Broadcasting Act and any subsidiary law made thereunder as well as any other law regulating broadcasting which may be in force from time to time,” Dr Aquilina told The Malta Independent on Sunday.