News broadcasts and current affairs programmes will no longer air on PBS’ primary station TVM as of October.

Instead, TVM 2 will be renamed TVMnews+ and focus exclusively on news, sports, culture, history and current affairs programmes. TVM will just broadcast entertainment programmes. 

The announcement by TVM on Friday about the change in schedule was met with criticism from the PN, which said it was considering legal action to stop the "PL's grip" of the national broadcasting station. 

In a statement, the party said PBS had decided to strip its primary station of news in the same year that the country was expected to go to the polls to elect a new government. 

PN expressed concern over the new schedule, adding it had never been consulted on the matter.

“PN does not believe that the PBS management will be fair and act autonomously. TVM has repeatedly been found guilty of not being impartial."

The party noted that since Robert Abela’s appointment as prime minister, TVM had stopped airing its most popular programme, Xarabank, without providing an explanation about its axing.

Several journalists had also left the station as they could not continue working freely, PN claimed.

The party added that PL officials were given a disproportionate amount of airtime on TVM, while it was becoming increasingly difficult for the Opposition to get coverage, even when ordered to do so by the Broadcasting Authority.