Robert Abela had already expressed his wish to reform the national broadcaster in the run up to his election as Labour leader. In an interview on TVM itself, back in January 2020, Abela had hinted at “strings being pulled from behind” and the need to make changes to the editorial board.
It sounded a lot like his predecessor, Joseph Muscat’s warning to a Where’s Everybody presenter: “For every attack we feel that is directed at the Labour Party, I will retaliate with twice as much force, with all my might, below the belt, where it hurts.”
Eventually, Abela did deliver on Muscat’s threat to Where’s Everybody, axing a long-standing staple of Maltese TV, Xarabank, from last autumn’s schedule, shortly before appointing a new board at PBS.
Xarabank would then be replaced by L-Erbgħa Fost il-Ġimgħa, which, despite the marked differences in format, was also axed, forcing host Mark Laurence Zammit to leave the national broadcaster.
But while the government insists on TVM’s independence from politics, these musical chairs – from board to schedule – have had the opposite effect. TVM is now planning to launch a new channel dedicated to news and current affairs, thus relegating the very backbone of public service broadcasting to a new channel which will never achieve the same ratings as the flagship.
This is problematic in more than one way. There is the clear intent to further commercialise the national TV station, which is already the domain of imported TV franchises, teleshoppers and low-quality afternoon entertainment. This runs contrary to the duty of a truly national broadcaster, which should serve to inform (impartially), educate and entertain.
Secondly, this means that the aftermath of the Caruana Galizia murder and inquiry, as well as the related corruption stories, will be further sidelined in favour of entertainment. This is a move to distract attention from the serious issues that hang around Abela’s neck, in the run-up to what promises to be a heated electoral campaign where the incumbent’s propaganda will be predominant.
In many ways, Abela’s line on national broadcasting resembles that of the Gonzi administration, which hung on obsessively to TVM by packing a schedule with current affairs programmes led by presenters faithful to the government of the time.
What Abela is doing at TVM betrays the uneasy presence of a siege mentality, similar to that seen in last painful months of the Gonzi administration.
Questions have risen over the change of guard in the newsroom, with former sports journalist Norma Saliba drafted in to the public service to replace the veteran Reno Bugeja. Saliba has done little to stop interference from above and a number of TVM reporters have complained that the station’s news function has been demoted to that of a simple “notice board”.
Since Saliba took over, news bulletins have become the space for unabashed government propaganda, with serious issues being relegated to the tail end of the news.
Airtime for civil society, including a huge majority of politically independent NGOs, has also been curtailed.
In the meantime, TVM’s news outlets – especially web – are employing a
worrying anti-migration narrative and are also doing no justice to the shocking stories coming out of Corradino.
Abela’s reform of PBS looks like more of a purge, as the public broadcaster is now “rid” of elements that may pose discomfort to the government: a bit like muzzling one’s own faithful lapdog, which isn’t really prone to biting the hand that feeds it.