Despite having their decision publicly overturned, the members of the PBS editorial board have not resigned, as would be expected following such a public reversal of their shortlist. The PBS board of directors, amid much public recrimination and statements and counter-statements, has overturned the shortlist they made of programmes to be broadcast in the autumn schedule.
Contrary to the way the issue has been reported in the media with the most interest, it was not just Bondiplus and L-Ispjun which were ruled out when the editorial board’s now reversed shortlist was published. Yet Bondiplus and L-Ispjun were the two most notable programmes that were blocked.
Since then, the national rumour mill has gone into overdrive with stories of phone calls from PN headquarters and Castille being among the most widespread whispers in the country.
There could be, however, a very different scenario: the current spat between the editorial board headed by John Camilleri and the board of directors headed by Joe Fenech Conti could go back to the February 2006 leadership battle which saw John Dalli defeated by Lawrence Gonzi.
Bondiplus was one of the key programmes removed from the shortlist by the editorial board. It is public knowledge that John Dalli blames Mr Bondi for his leadership defeat and also for his being forced to resign some months later. Mr Bondi was blocked from doing another programme about Mr Dalli not so long ago.
There is no room to believe that Mr Dalli had a hand in the editorial board’s decision but John Camilleri, who was Eddie Fenech Adami’s private secretary some years ago, now works as CEO of the Ta Qali tent set up by Ruben Caruana and spearheaded by Mr Dalli in a private capacity.
Despite various appeals made both by Mr Bondi and Pierre Portelli, head of Watermelon Productions, which created L-Ispjun, Mr Camilleri does not seem to have managed to meet them over the past months.
Bondiplus was stopped from doing a whole programme with Jose Carreras, who is being brought to Malta by a different company (NnG) in the coming weeks. The reason Mr Bondi was given was this would have commercial impact.
Yet, it must be pointed out that PBS pulled out all the stops to market Bocelli’s visit in December and the Italian singer filled the Ta Qali tent to capacity.
Then there is a further matter: Bondiplus’s elimination from the shortlist was accompanied by another current affairs programme making it to the short-list. This was none other than Reporter, the programme by Saviour Balzan of MaltaToday and The Business Times, which he had been doing on PBS, then moved to Smash and subsequently eased out of that station.
While all mention in the media has been of Bondiplus and L-Ispjun, no section of the media has mentioned Reporter’s inclusion in the shortlist and the keen edge of MaltaToday investigating PBS seems to have become blunted in the past weeks.
Yet when MaltaToday launched its weekday edition, PBS devoted no less than four minutes coverage, surely an issue for consideration of commercial impact by the PBS editorial board and the board of directors if not by the Broadcasting Authority as well.
The editorial board is composed of Mr Camilleri as its head, Dr Dominic Fenech and Mary Anne Lauri as its voting members, and Head of News Sylvana Cristina, Head of Programmes Simon Lumsden and CEO Albert Debono as its silent members (with no voting powers).
It was noted that while Ms Lauri signed the report, she was not present at the press conference. It was also noted that this is the third time that a proposal by Dr Fenech’s colleague in the university’s History Department, Professor Henry Frendo, was kept out of the shortlist.
One outstanding issue now is how the board of directors will react to the more outrageous public statements made by the editorial board, such as that the shortlist was made public in the way it was made so as to avoid any meddling (tbaghbis), that PBS has now become the people’s laughing stock and a tragic farce, and in particular that a certain director has a conflict of interest.