On Friday, popular PBS programme Xarabank went ahead with discussing a court case in spite of protestations by one of the parties that it was doing so with a biased angle. Dr Martin Fenech, who represents a woman who has been charged with perjury while there are calls for her former husband to be released, put pressure on PBS not to air the programme.

Dr Fenech, who incidentally is also a member on the PBS editorial board, was later accused by a spokesman for the Home Affairs Ministry of exerting great pressure on PBS editor Reno Bugeja and Xarabank presenter Peppi Azzopardi for the programme to be withdrawn, going as far as "threatening" the presenter.

The Xarabank team has however not replied to a set of questions sent by The Malta Independent on the issue.

The case in question is that of a man who is in prison after being found guilty of defiling his daughter. Xarabank has gone on a crusade for the liberation of this man after his former partner has been charged with perjury and forcing her daughter to lie about her father about the abuse.

Xarabank is organising a petition to collect signatures to be presented to the President, and on Friday had the man’s lawyer Tonio Azzopardi at the start of the show to explain his client’s side of the story.

During yesterday’s show, presenter Peppi Azzopardi used phrases like “the man is in prison for nothing” and “it is clear the man is innocent”, going as far as saying that the man will be present on the Xarabank show next week – and all this when the courts of law are still to decide on whether the man is to be released. The presenter’s bias in favour of the man – and, as a consequence, against the woman who is still, according to our law, presumed innocent until proven guilty – was evident to all viewers.

Earlier on Friday, the lawyer representing the woman, Dr Martin Fenech, had protested about the bias the Xarabank producers were showing against his client, telling The Malta Independent that he was making attempts to stop the programme. At that stage, Dr Fenech was referring to next week’s programme. It must be pointed out that a full programme on the issue is planned for next Friday, but the first part of yesterday’s edition – at peak viewership – was used to interview Dr Azzopardi as a teaser for next week’s show.

Dr Fenech told The Malta Independent he had requested PBS editor Reno Bugeja not to allow the programme to go ahead, insisting that there is going to be great bias against his client and everything in favour of her former partner.

“Programme presenter Peppi Azzopardi has declared his bias in favour of the man in prison, so how can I expect the programme to be balanced?” Dr Fenech said. With the programme, Xarabank is trying to influence judicial proceedings, he said.

Justice should be allowed to take its course and such delicate matters should not be tried on TV, he said. “It is grossly unfair on my client,” he added.

The Malta Independent on Friday afternoon made several attempts to contact Peppi Azzopardi for his comments on the case, but he did not take our calls. We were told by another member of the Xarabank team to direct our questions to a lawyer, Dr Edward Gatt, and news editor Rachel Attard sent a set of questions at 2pm Friday, at a time when The Malta Independent did not know about Dr Tonio Azzopardi’s presence in the programme later in the evening.

The questions are as follows:

Will Xarabank accept the request made by Dr Martin Fenech not to air next week’s programme on the perjury case?

With Peppi Azzopardi already declaring that the father should be released, can there be a fair and balanced discussion?

On which grounds is Peppi Azzopardi and his team siding with the man in prison? What is their evidence?

If the programme is aired wouldn’t this constitute trial by the media?

Xarabank is running a petition on line. Is it trying to influence the judicial proceedings?

We also asked Dr Gatt to identify his role in this case: that is who is he representing; Is it Peppi, WE media or PBS?

In spite of follow-ups to the set of questions, The Malta Independent did not get any answers. Knowing that the Xarabank team was busy in their preparations for yesterday’s programme, we opted to give them more time to give us a reply.

But we now believe that we have given Dr Gatt, and Peppi Azzopardi for that matter, enough time to answer. It is evident to us that while Xarabank expects to be given answers, it is not prepared to give some of its own.