The Nationalist Party has strongly condemned that the Labour government has, for years, controlled public broadcasting and has rendered TVM to "an extension of the Government's communications machine," rather than let it act as the national public broadcaster.

This statement comes two days after parliamentary figures revealed that PBS aired 532 government sound bites and just 66 Opposition sound on tape (SOT) clips between June 2025 and May 2026.

This information stemmed from a PQ posed by PN MP Michael Piccinino, whereby it was shown that during news bulletins over the past year, 532 SOT clips featured Prime Minister Robert Abela or other government representatives while just 66 SOT clips featured the Leader of the Opposition, a member of the Opposition, or a PN representative providing their own comments.

"This is an absolute imbalance which exposes how TVM is entirely manipulated by the Government, which has reduced it to nothing more than its own noticeboard," the PN said.

The PN stated on Thursday morning that the PL government is committing "a serious abuse of State institutions," and by virtue is abusing of public funds. It said that this "is an insult to the intelligence of every citizen who pays for an impartial public broadcaster but is instead given Super One 2."

"Instead of informing, it selects. Instead of balancing, it conceals. Instead of giving the full picture, it paints only one reality: the one that suits the Labour Party in Government," the PN said.

In this PN statement, which was written by its Shadow Minister for the Arts, Culture, and National Heritage, Opposition MP Justin Schembri, the party observed that the Broadcasting Authority has already had to intervene on TVM's impartial treatment of portraying the Government's and the Opposition's news bulletins - including on the broadcasting of comments by their representatives, i.e., sound on tape (SOT) clips.

The Nationalist Party noted that in Wednesday afternoon's parliamentary sitting, Arts Minister Malcolm Paul Agius Galea repeatedly justified "this illegal conduct by PBS despite a number of Broadcasting Authority decisions condemning PBS over this matter." During Wednesday's plenary, Minister Agius Galea said that it is natural for government representatives to have more clips than members of the Opposition.

On Thursday, the PN remarked that this is neither journalism, nor information, nor public service, but "this is propaganda paid for by taxpayers."

It continued that "Robert Abela's Government has not strengthened media freedom," but contrarily, "it has continued to entrench a culture in which the independent media is muzzled, uncomfortable questions are left unanswered, public information is kept hidden, and public broadcasting is used as a shield for the Labour Government instead of holding it to account."

The PN commented that as a consequence of this culture, Malta's "shameful position" is reflected in global press freedom rankings. The PN deplored this, saying that having "a free, strong and independent media" is one of the most important pillars of a free society and for a modern European democracy.

It added that "it is the people who lose" in countries where media is systematically weakened, explaining that scrutiny is reduced whenever governments control media narratives, and "that when scrutiny is reduced, arrogance grows," and "when arrogance grows, abuses increase."

The PN concluded its statement by insisting that PBS "must be freed from the Government's political grip."

"Public broadcasting must once again become the broadcaster of the people, not of the Cabinet. It must give fair space to the Opposition, to civil society and to everyone who has a right to be heard in a normal democracy," the PN said.

It also mentioned that Prime Minister Robert Abela must carry political responsibility "for the way TVM is being manipulated," adding that "a Government that fears questions fears the truth. And a Government that fears the truth has no right to use public broadcasting and its workers to hide its own weaknesses."

The Nationalist Party pledged to continue using every tool at its disposal to defend media freedom, the people's right to be fully and fairly informed, as well as the need for Malta to have institutions that serve citizens, "not the Labour Party in government."