The minister responsible for state broadcasting, Carmelo Abela, on Monday slammed Opposition leader Bernard Grech’s claims that the public broadcaster is under control by the Labour Party and government. 

“This is unfair criticism, recent polls and surveys show that trust in the Opposition leader is the same, if not worse than before. This is not because the party’s message is not out there, but because Grech has no message or credibility,” Abela said in parliament. 

He said that Grech complained that he was not reported as much as Prime Minister Robert Abela. 

"Once the party has a spokesperson who does most of the talking rather than the leader... and once Grech repeats himself on the same point over and over again, what is there to report?"

In a recent interview with Times of Malta, Grech said that the party’s message was not reaching people because PBS has been ‘captured’ by the Labour Party and Castille.

Abela said that problems that public broadcasting is facing stem from the time when the Nationalist Party was in government. 

“Certain people who were hired for PBS to present programmes, later on became PN candidates. We saw how some programmes were run, manipulated and how only certain guests and speakers were invited to speak on programmes.”

He said PBS is currently undergoing changes to improve the quality for the general public.

 “We have a lot to go, but we have made a huge leap in progress and broadcasting since 2013.”