The editorial board of the Public Broadcasting Services, ignored not so long ago about the state broadcaster’s programme schedule, has again been ignored about a particular broadcast. The offending programme was again a Where’s Everybody production, Bondiplus, broadcast on Monday, consisting of an interview with Evarist Saliba, author of the book No Honourable Minister.
The board’s acting chairman, Prof. Dominic Fenech, said it was to be noted that the subject chosen did not have the approval of the editorial board. Board members had reservations on the choice of subject, in terms of its suitability as a current affairs topic, its potential political one-sidedness, and its unimaginative and undemanding format.
“In light of the fact that this was not the first time that Bondiplus had interviewed an author on his published memoirs, the editorial board unanimously decided at its last meeting that, before sanctioning the choice of subject, it required a detailed running order of the programme from the producers. This should not have been difficult to prepare, since the programme was to be pre-recorded. The presenters of Bondiplus were asked time and again for the running order, but failed to produce it and proceeded with the preparations to record and broadcast the programme.
“This failure meant that the editorial board was not in a position to sanction the broadcasting of a programme on the proposed topic, as its original concerns had not been assuaged. Nonetheless, the programme was broadcast on someone else’s authority. Consequently the editorial board disclaims responsibility for the programme and its contents.”
In a counter-statement, programme presenter Lou Bondi said he cannot understand why Dr Fenech did not approve the proposal for Bondiplus to discuss the memoirs of Evarist Saliba.
Dr Fenech’s claims that he feared that the programme would suffer from “potential political one-sidedness” has one cause – his allergy to the truth, Mr Bondi said. Dr Fenech knows “that I invited ex-MLP Ministers Alex Sciberras Trigona and Leo Brincat to comment on Evarist Saliba’s claims. Unfortunately, they both declined our invitation. He also knows... that we asked the MLP– as a party – for a comment. They too, declined.”
“But crystal clear evidence of Fenech’s allergy to the truth, is this. For this programme, we asked to interview him; both as a historian and as a former MLP Secretary General during some of the years covered in Saliba’s book. We invited him through the PBS Head of Programmes, his colleague on the Editorial Board. The Head of Programmes informed me that (Dr) Fenech declined our invitation.”
The format adopted for this edition of Bondiplus did not have a running order as it had no pre-recorded features in it, Mr Bondi said.
“Since October (Dr) Fenech has turned down practically every proposed topic we submitted to him. Had he been allowed to have his way, Bondiplus would not have been on air these last three months. It is obvious what is happening. Having failed to take Bondiplus off the air completely, (Dr) Fenech is now trying to block it on a weekly basis. This is the sort of man occupying the Chair of the Editorial Board of our national station at present,” Mr Bondi said.