The PN said Monday that it is clear that the Government does not respect the institution of Parliament and its members, nor does it respect honest and investigative journalism, given its lack of transparency on the Malta Eurovision Song Contest expenditure.

“After the various Parliamentary Questions regarding this year's Malta Eurovision Song Contest, it is evident that the Government and PBS have much to answer for,” the PN said.

It further added that in a series of related questions, among other issues, “expenditure on the final evening, outstanding payments to some of the artists, the workshop system used to select the finalists, spending on videos, and the lack of transparency in the responses provided by Minister (for Culture) Owen Bonnici tabled in parliament, all confirm that the Government is not correctly overseeing what is happening at PBS.

“This lack of transparency in the management and governance of the public station is also faced by independent journalists,” it continued.

Following the airing of the Eurovision song contest final production the PN branded the production of the final of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest as an insult to singers, viewers, and workers of the national broadcaster.

“The PBS, which is publicly financed, let down the people, the singers themselves, but also the PBS workers and presenters who did everything to cover for the mediocrity of what was decided by PBS’ leadership,” the party had continued.

The PN said that the lack of an audience during the final resulted in the singers and presenters having to make a far larger effort to keep the show going, especially when this was meant to be broadcast live but, in fact, was largely not live.

The PN said that the pity is that PBS’ leadership, particularly chairman Mark Sammut and Chief Operations Officer Charles Dalli, “insults artists, workers, and the public in this manner” especially when PBS is funded by the same people who expect and deserve better.