Last Friday, Peppi Azzopardi, producer and presenter of what was Malta’s most popular and most talked-about programme Xarabank, uploaded a Facebook post with an advert of what would have been discussed that evening if Xarabank had still been on air.

“Today on Xarabank,” the advert said, “we will have a debate between Joseph Muscat and Adrian Delia in the first part, followed by a debate between Robert Abela and Bernard Grech.”

The subject, of course, would have been the appeals judgment with regard to the three hospitals deal, which confirmed an original ruling given in February that rescinded an agreement reached by the government with Vitals Global Healthcare to pass on three public hospitals to be run by the private sector, a concession that was later passed on to Steward Health Care.

But there was no Xarabank last Friday. The programme was axed from TVM’s schedule in August 2020, incidentally a few months after Abela became Prime Minister. Since then, there has been a dearth of discussion programmes on the national broadcasting station.

Xarabank was not perfect. When it was on air, we were among those who criticised it. There were times when it trivialised matters too much. There were other times when the debate was too rowdy and uncontrolled. While giving the chance to everyone to speak may have been an idea with good intentions, sometimes people were presented as experts when they were not.

But it was a programme everybody watched, even those who did not want to admit it. It offered a platform. The subjects tackled were current affairs which the country was dealing with at the time and, if there was no hot topic, the producers came up with subjects that ranged from serious to entertaining.

Whoever had something to say went on Xarabank to say it. Politicians were the first to admit that if they wanted to send a message, they went on Xarabank to put it across. People heard it there much more than they did if it had been said elsewhere. Over the years, it had managed to re-invent itself, make necessary changes so as not to become repetitive, and provide viewers with a mix of thoughts and ideas that people continued to talk about in the following days.

Since its demise it has not been replaced. And the more time passes, the more it is clear why it was cancelled. And the more it is evident that the country needs a programme like Xarabank.

PBS has always been criticised for favouring the government of the day. Xarabank itself had been accused of favouring the PN when the Nationalist Party was in government, and then the PL when the Labour Party was in power. But now the situation is worse, as PBS is killing discussion, as Azzopardi has declared.

Just to give one example, he recently said, when Malta Drydocks had been closed down then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami had faced a hall packed with drydocks workers on Xarabank.

Today, it’s as if nothing happened when it was announced that Air Malta is to be shut down. There is no Robert Abela facing a hall packed with Air Malta employees asking why the national airline has collapsed.

Xarabank, or something like it, is a necessity on PBS.

Bring it back.