The board of directors of the state-financed Public Broad-

casting Services (PBS) said attacks which Opposition Leader Alfred Sant was making on board member Michael Seychell were intended not only to put Mr Seychell in a bad light but also to discredit the PBS board’s work with the public and programme producers.

Dr Sant has repeatedly alleged that Mr Seychell took part in decisions about the choice of programmes for PBS when his daughter and her husband were, through the programmes of their companies, competing for programme slots, the board said, adding this was totally incorrect and far from the truth.

The board added that Mr Seychell had exempted himself from the two meetings the board held to discuss programmes. The only occasion where Mr Seychell had access to information about what had been negotiated with other producers was when the final schedule was presented to the board for approval. At that stage Mr Seychell could not influence negotiations with the company Watermelon because they had been concluded, the board said.

In a statement accompanying the board’s, Mr Seychell said he had asked his lawyer to take legal action against Dr Sant the first time Dr Sant made the allegations about him. But Dr Sant had continued making the allegations.

Mr Seychell said he also wrote to a newspaper to deny the allegations and explained that he had exempted himself from meetings which discussed programmes submitted by his son in law’s company.