Broadcasting watchdog advises PBS to be careful

The Broadcasting Authority yesterday urged Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) to be careful in the way it reported on the activities of the three political parties.

Following a complaint by Alternattiva Demokratika about the coverage of an event on March 6, the authority said PBS had failed to give the party the same treatment as it did to the two others.

AD had complained that a half-day activity addressed by a Green MEP, AD chairman Harry Vassallo and MEP election candidate Arnold Cassola was not accompanied by footage in the news bulletin.

AD said the bulletin included four items about PN activities, two about ministries and two about the Labour Party accompanied by footage.

The authority said that after hearing both sides, it agreed with PBS that the activity was of enough importance to be reported in a news bulletin but not accompanied by footage.

The authority said that what distinguished television from radio was the visual element and there was no doubt that a film was more effective than a newscaster reading a script.

But, it added, PBS did not give proportionate treatment to the three political parties in the same bulletin and this could have caused an element of discrimination with regard to AD, at least in the case of the appropriate distribution of broadcasting facilities through footage.