For instance, the 9.30pm news headlines are being axed from the new schedule, which starts in October. These had become so popular that even the party television stations introduced their own versions later.

Moreover, the 11pm news is being recorded after the 8pm newscast, with the news centre closing soon after. This has been the case for more than one month The 11pm news was always broadcast live by TVM, except on very rare occasions like New Year's Eve.

Now that all who had asked for early retirement in the newsroom have been released – Tony Gaffiero's last day of work was last Sunday – the newsroom has only one reporter to cover all the day's events.

This means that PBS has to be very selective in its coverage of events, leaving out important events and relying more on press releases and foreign news items to pad out the bulletin. It has to comply with the 30-minute requirement set out by law for it to carry adverts in the news.

Moreover, because the studio space and technical area at the PBS news centre will be used for other programmes, the news will be broadcast from Studio 2 at Television House.

Thus PBS news is going “back to square one”, sources said, since Studio 2 housed the old presentation studio from which all news programmes used to be aired prior to the setting-up of the news centre in 1997.

However, as there have been strong complaints about the storeroom earmarked to house the actual newsroom (as reported last week by The Malta Independent on Sunday), a stop-gap solution is being proposed whereby the newsroom remains at the news centre and the news is edited and produced at Television House.

This means that to edit a feature at Television House and return to the newsroom, journalists will have to walk around 400 metres (200 metres each way) outside and cross the road twice.

Will journalists be provided with umbrellas, raincoats and wellington boots when it's pouring with rain? It is not known whether athletic qualities were in the job description of the newsroom staff employed by PBS.

There are serious doubts as to whether the new complement in the newsroom will be able to satisfy the public service obligations of PBS and offer a complete coverage of diverse viewpoints.

“Before we used to give a complete service, now we are giving a piecemeal service,” sources at PBS told The Malta Independent on Sunday.

For instance, in order to broadcast yesterday week's football match between Malta and Sweden, PBS had to hire technical personnel from other production companies because it did not have enough of its own to cover the game.

Moreover, PBS is now to have a sports co-ordinator, but this is being done on a part-time basis by one of the news co-ordinators, Peter Cossai, together with Stephen Azzopardi.

The function of sports co-ordinator was not envisaged in the restructured PBS, and Mr Cossai will be taking on this job together with his duties as news co-ordinator.

Before the restructuring process began, there was a full time sports co-ordinator, Leonard Callus, who has since joined RTK as head of news.

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