Sant claims falling-outled to PBS resignations

The resignations of Andrew Agius Muscat and Fr Joe Borg as chairmen of the Public Broadcasting Services and the station's editorial board respectively came after a falling-out with the authorities, Opposition Leader Alfred Sant said yesterday.

"Let us say, for the time being, they fell out with the authorities," Dr Sant said when asked if he meant the chairmen had a tiff with Investments Minister Austin Gatt.

Mr Agius Muscat - the 31-year-old manager of chicken processing firm Chef's Choice - had been appointed in October 2004 replacing Michael Mallia. His term was initially until July 2005 but was later extended by a year.

Fr Borg, a long-time media consultant and former executive chairman of the Church-owned Media Centre, had been appointed with an open-ended term of office in May 2004.

Both cited personal reasons for stepping down last week and insisted they had not fallen out with Dr Gatt. At a press conference called yesterday "to divulge the real reasons" behind both resignations, Dr Sant said Mr Agius Muscat was the third PBS chairman to resign since PBS became part of Dr Gatt's portfolio, following Mr Mallia and his predecessor, Austin Sammut, who resigned in 2003.

He reiterated that the "amateurish" restructuring of PBS meant that the staff complement - reduced from 190 to 55 workers - was not coping with the workload.

Instead of achieving the promised quality leap, the Investments Minister's restructuring process had plunged PBS into a crisis turning it into a "regime station".

Besides a number of veteran journalists who had left PBS after the restructuring process, former financial controller Stephen Azzopardi also had to go "because he disagreed with the management as imposed by Dr Gatt".

Dr Sant said a similar case was the termination of contract of PBS sales manager Mario Micallef, a case for which the government had given no reasons and which could soon end up in court.

"Valid people are leaving PBS because the station is being run in a partisan manner," Dr Sant said.

One major controversial issue over the past year has been the appointment of a head of news for PBS.

"Towards the end of 2005, The Times journalist Vanessa MacDonald was due to become PBS head of news. However, her appointment was scrapped after an intervention from the Office of the Prime Minister in what was a clear clash with Dr Gatt. Instead, Silvana Cristina was appointed head of news out of the blue," Dr Sant said.

In September 2005, PBS also withdrew a tender for the station's rebranding after a company doing the marketing for Chef's Choice, the company managed by Mr Agius Muscat, was one of the three bidders for the tender.

Where's Everybody? - the company with a "monopoly of the national station's prime time" - had also made their proposal which included an audience survey of the programmes some of which are run by the same company, Dr Sant said.

Commenting on the farming out of programmes at PBS, Dr Sant said the Investments Minister should not allow Where's Everybody? to monopolise prime time when full-time employees who could produce good programmes were being sidelined.

"Under a Labour government, Where's Everybody? will not monopolise prime time," Dr Sant said, adding that PBS employees would be given the space to produce programmes.

He added that PBS had an essential role in the country. While Labour would oppose any proposal to privatise PBS, the national station should follow the British Broadcasting Corporation model where public broadcasting is in the hands of a board of directors managing the station in the national interest, Dr Sant said.

Rebutting Dr Sant's claims, the Investments Ministry said scientific audience surveys showed that TVM was still the most popular television station among the Maltese.

"The ministry will not go into the merit of individual broadcasters who Dr Sant finds hostile. However, the ministry is concerned that the man aspiring to become Prime Minister declares he will interfere with the choice of programmes on PBS and discredits the objectivity of the station."

The ministry said the government had set up an independent board which advised the board of directors on the quality of programmes broadcast on PBS "so that there would be no political intervention in the choice".

It said Dr Sant should say whether he had any confidence in the editorial board members - Mary Anne Lauri and Dominic Fenech. "If he does have confidence in them, then he should stop casting doubts on their integrity," the ministry said.