A former government spokesman is one of five people who will replace Norma Saliba at state broadcaster TVM, as part of a restructuring exercise at Public Broadcasting Services Limited.

According to an internal memo seen by Times of Malta, the company announced that it had chosen journalists Liam Carter and Massimo Axisa as new 'shift editors' responsible for day-to-day content.

Saliba’s previous designation as head of news will remain vacant but her responsibilities will be split among five people.

No official announcement was made by the company and news only emerged after Newsbook published a story on Tuesday night. 

Axisa previously worked as chief government spokesperson at the Justice Minister after having been handpicked by former minister Edward Zammit Lewis.

Before that, he worked for the General Workers’ Union daily L-Orizzont and its weekly newspaper It-Torċa. He then joined Labour’s ONE Productions for a short stint before joining PBS as a web journalist in January 2019.

After just over one year, he left the job and took on the role of head of communications for the Justice Ministry before returning back to PBS as a journalist. Zammit Lewis was left out of the new cabinet of ministers following the 2022 general election.

Carter joined PBS in 2019 following a stint at Malta Today and its Maltese language sister newspaper Illum.

Norma Saliba. Photo: Facebook

Saliba quit the role just under three years after she was first appointed to the top position at the national broadcaster, taking over from Reno Bugeja in July 2020.

Sources say she fell out of favour with TVM executive chairman Mark Sammut, who had her replaced as TVM’s registered editor in January 2022. She was replaced in that role by Charles Dalli, but stayed on as head of news at the national station until she eventually resigned.

Dalli, an engineer by profession who has never worked directly in journalism, took on her role in the interim and will remain the registered editor.

Saliba remained a PBS employee but was seconded to on a €72,000-a-year contract to run a new Centre for the Maltese Language.

Her contract states that Saliba can return to her former substantive position if her contract to serve as executive director of the new centre is terminated.

Sources at PBS said a few months after Saliba’s departure, Sammut and Dalli began working on a “restructuring process” of the newsroom.

It issued an internal call in October, seeking to fill Saliba’s role with two people, as editors responsible for content. Although the veteran journalists in the newsroom, including those who have worked in the TVM newsroom for decades, applied for the position, it was given to Carter and Axisa.

Two veteran journalists, Ruth Amaira and Mario Micallef, were promoted to shift managers, responsible for the production and coordination of news bulletins and TVM News+ content. 

Maria Muscat, another veteran journalist, was removed from the newsroom and given a management position, responsible for newsroom resources management, rosters, HR Management and well-being as well as planning and coordination with PBS departments.

Journalists Mario Xuereb and Owen Galea, the latter previously editor of TVM news portal, had their roles amended. Xuereb will be responsible for special projects, and News+ management, programmes, strategies, planning and improvements while Galea will now be responsible for web and social media management.

Galea was previously head of Labour’s ONE and also served in Prime Minister Robert Abela’s communications team in Castille.

Sources said that in April, Sammut and Dalli were planning further changes in the newsroom, specifically with the appointment of two coordinators for court and parliament.

It is a well-known secret that PBS has served the government of the day for several years. The Labour government has simply upped the propaganda content by becoming a notice board for the Labour administration, ministers’ speeches. Comments are given prominence irrespective of any news value and investigative journalism at PBS is non-existent.

In 2021, Times of Malta revealed how journalists who work for TVM are allowed to do little “proper” journalism and are discouraged from pursuing stories that could potentially embarrass the government.