One of the principal aims of any taxpayer-funded public broadcasting service is to make educational and informative programming available to the public.
When questions of bias and slanted coverage by PBS are raised by writers, journalists, artists and activists who believe in freedom of expression, it is time for action to be taken to ensure the public broadcaster adheres to higher standards of service.
The promotion by PBS of Mein Fűhrer Adolf, Hitler, l-Istorja u l-Bijografija, a book by Ronald Bugeja, in the programme Ħajjietna Ktieb, drew the condemnation of a number of organisations, among them PEN Malta. This organisation is an offshoot of the charity PEN International, which has a history of 100 years of celebrating literature and protecting freedom of expression.
Freedom of expression, however, does not give anyone the right to justify the despicable policies of violence and genocide perpetrated by the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler.
As PEN Malta president Immanuel Mifsud said: “Everyone has a right to their opinion, but the public broadcaster’s duty is to know history, to point out lies and deceit and to promote values of democracy and tolerance.”
PEN is right in asking why the programme presenter failed to ask critical questions about the dangerous revisionism of the book that glorifies and justifies Hitler, the Nazi movement and ideology and the actions of the civil and military Nazi administration in Germany in the 20th century.
PBS editor Charles Dalli dissociated the national broadcaster from Bugeja’s statements. He admitted that the PBS quality-control function did not flag any issues about this book and confirmed they would be “evaluating the QC report and will take appropriate action”.
NGO Repubblika urged Minister Owen Bonnici to take the necessary steps to investigate this faux pas by PBS. The culture ministry said it was unaware of the programme and “definitely does not condone Mr Bugeja’s declarations”. The Nationalist Party argued that this incident further confirmed the “disaster of leadership” at the public broadcaster.
TVM has since removed the programme from its online platform. The public broadcaster must never be seen to be condoning the justification of Nazism and the distortion of history. Even more so in the light of the current geopolitical situation, which proves how dangerous it is to assume that past atrocities resulting from toxic political ideologies will not be repeated in our times.
PBS must act responsibly and sensitively towards programmes that deal with the many dimensions of cultural, historical and social issues. It must avoid political and historical bias and inaccuracies. Public service broadcasting should provide services that celebrate social diversity and facilitate social cohesion.
It must facilitate public discussion and debate while at the same time creating a platform that adheres to the values of tolerance and inclusivity. However, it cannot continue providing the occasional platform for extreme right-wing parties bent on fuelling misinformation and racial hatred as it has a tendency to occasionally do.
In a functioning democracy, freedom of expression is not an absolute right. In this case, it needed to be balanced out by truthful information and rigorous analysis of the painful historical realities experienced by past and present generations. The management shortcomings of PBS range from its abject failure to exercise independence from the political interests of the government of the day to dire shortages of the talent necessary to ensure it gives a high-quality service to the public.
This incident should trigger a deeper investigation of PBS by an independent board of experts to determine whether it really is fulfilling its public service obligations in general.