State broadcasting critics living in a time-warp, minister says

Education Minister Dolores Cristina yesterday criticised parliamentarians who had accused public broadcasting of lack of independence, describing them as living in a time-warp.

Winding up the debate in second reading amending the Broadcasting Act, Mrs Cristina stressed that there had never been public broadcasting so free from government interference. She also criticised those MPs who had used the time for partisan purposes and for attacking the reputation of certain persons.

Such mudslinging comments, she said, were based on incorrect perceptions. She emphasised that the creation of the editorial board in 2004 strengthened the independence of PBS.

Although the opposition passed adverse comments on broadcasters within the news department, statistics clearly indicated that the Labour Party had been allocated more time in news bulletins than the Nationalist Party which amounted to 50 per cent compared to 30 per cent.

Criticism of the chairman of the Editorial Board was unworthy.

The minister said there was disagreement within the Opposition on public broadcasting, with party leader Joseph Muscat and media spokesman Evarist Bartolo making conflicting proposals even on issues as to whether members of the board ought to be representatives of the political parties.

MPs making blanket statements on the need for a better quality content of programmes only indicated that they did not follow these programmes.

A great leap forward had been made in the quality of broadcasting, were the political dose was diluted and where there was a greater focus on social society, the people and what is happening out there.

Earlier in her speech, Mrs Cristina described the industry as dynamic and one that had, in the last years, provided new employment opportunities.

The opposition had lost the opportunity to debate national broadcasting by preferring to throw mud at identifiable individuals within the national station based on unfounded statements.

She expressed disappointment that thus, the debate had not focused on the draft legislation itself.

The Bill sought to regulate the industry by removing bureaucracy; aiming at self-regulation rather than imposition of regulation. While keeping in mind that station financing heavily depended on advertising, standards ought to be set to ensure the integrity of programme content as well as consumer protection.

To this effect, Minister Cristina noted that the Bill considered the introduction of new regulations for advertising. She assured the House that serious and grave monitoring of advertising and of adherence to standards was to be followed, with those failing to abide with the regulations facing penalties. Notwithstanding, the proposed framework still left room for flexibility so as not to stifle creativity and competition.

Mrs Cristina noted that the TVM and Education-22 were to provide education to children and adults through entertainment. NGOs played an important role in Malta and are given space within the public broadcasting sector not necessarily through advertising but through participation even in programmes. Earlier, Labour MP Silvio Parnis said pluralism in broadcasting was very important. Broadcasting stations in Malta needed to develop their viewer education capacity and make better use of their position.

He called on to the Broadcasting Authority to regulate the content of programmes and adverts.

The university should develop more opportunities to prepare presenters who would then work within the media.

Although the BA has established guidelines for presenters these are at times not followed. Furthermore, presenters lacked personality.

He noted NGOs were given the possibility to make use of adverts for a few seconds on any station and asked the Minister to provide more information on the opportunities afforded to NGOs.

Mr Parnis suggested that government advertising be equally shared between all stations as this would reach bigger viewership.

He complained that TVM highlighted ministerial statements but not those issued by the opposition.

He questioned whether people should continue paying licence fees to TVM when one considered that these families were also paying for cable TV, especially when services such as teletext had been removed.

Concluding, Mr Parnis said Maltese viewers watched all stations and invited presenters to use their strong influence to transmit positive messages.

The Bill was unanimously approved.

At the beginning of yesterday's session, the House unanimously gave the first reading to the Aircraft Registration Bill.

During the adjournment, Labour MP Noel Farrugia expressed solidarity with the earthquake victims of Haiti.