The Journalists’ Committee and the Institute of Maltese Journalists (IGM) expressed serious concern “at the way the state public broadcaster is being systematically stripped of its public service ethos for commercial and political expediency”.

In a joint statement, IGM chairman Malcolm Naudi and Journalists Committee chairman Karl Schembri said that the past months had served to confirm their suspicions throughout the PBS restructuring process launched by the Investments Ministry, which has stripped the workforce to one-third of its original complement.

“Not only has the national broadcaster been rendered incapable of producing its own current affairs programmes, but the last indicting development to come out of PBS confirms that the registered editor, Sylvana Cristina, cannot even speak to her colleagues from the press and defend her own decisions.

“With the ministry’s declared policy of vetting and amending any statement given by workers falling under its portfolio, Ms Cristina would be unable to participate in a discussion programme on PBS, as she would need the ministry’s go-ahead for whatever she says. The same applies to PBS chairman Joe Fenech Conti and chief executive Albert Debono, although it seems the two appointees are comfortable with this situation as they gladly resort to ‘ministerial policies’ whenever held to account by journalists for their decisions,” the statement said.

“This is a very serious situation that puts (sic) the country’s democratic credentials into question. Irrespective of the ministry’s own set policies, Ms Cristina remains answerable to the editorial board and to the public, and at law she remains solely and personally answerable for editorial content on the PBS stations.”

“Irrespective of the PBS chairman and chief executive’s preferences to be vetted by the ministry, the public deserves a free, transparent and accountable public broadcaster, unshackled by any suppression, and able to expose and attack any attempts at its stations’ manipulation.

“We would like to remind the public that the PBS editorial board is still without a chairman, that the last editorial board report was compiled two years ago, and that the Broadcasting Authority itself has declared it cannot fathom who is calling the shots at our national broadcaster. It is clear this situation cannot go on, even more so with an election round the corner.”

The statement added that whatever the rhetoric employed by the ministry and the PBS chairman and board of directors, the PBS editorial board had made it amply clear through its public denunciations that its editorial decisions were constantly being ignored, overruled and nullified. “We cannot afford any more resignations from the editorial wing because of this. It is the chairman and higher authority who have to reconsider their position and decide whether to focus on investments or public broadcasting.”

The ministry replied to the joint statement by referring to a public statement made by the PBS editor, in which Ms Cristina spoke about the situation relating to her. The ministry statement left all other accusations unanswered.

In her statement Ms Cristina said: “For the record I would like to make it clear that as news manager and registered editor of PBS, I have always been left at liberty to exercise my editorial discretion. In the recent incident involving Bondiplus, the chairman of PBS – Joe Fenech Conti, made it very clear to me that he has faith in my judgement and that he would back any decision I took to the full.

“As for the remark that ‘the registered editor is prohibited from speaking to the press’ it must be clarified that for a number of years now it has been company policy that official communication by the company’s officers be made through written questions and answers subject to approval from the Ministry for Investments and Information Technology.

“The news bulletin of PBS is the product of independent, professional journalism, and during my tenure as news manager, neither the chairman of the company nor any member of the board of directors ever tried to modify or influence its content. In fact the chairman has been pushing for an in-house current affairs programme. Now that the administrative hurdles have been overcome it will hopefully be possible to go on air in the New Year.”

The ministry ended its communication by saying that no further comment was necessary.