Updated 8.40am with comments from PBS, Culture Ministry
PBS is reviewing a programme that hosted an author who defended Adolf Hitler, while the National Book Council has distanced itself from the book, amid widespread anger and condemnation.
PBS editor Charles Dalli told Times of Malta on Friday morning that the station found comments made by author Ronald Bugeja promoting his book - Mein Führer Adolf Hitler – L-Istorja u l-Bijografija - unacceptable.
Meanwhile, PEN Malta said it was “shocked and disgusted” at the national broadcaster for “serving as a pulpit for Nazi ideas” when it promoted the book.
Bugeja was recently on the TVM programme Ħajjitna Ktieb, presented by John Demanuele, in which he defended Hitler and said he was motivated to write the book because he claims that most people are “never educated” about the details of his life.
“We were never educated about it. We always saw this figure that caused a war that saw certain atrocities happen,” Bugeja said.
"Nowadays from new evidence that was previously condemned and that no one could see, the person was not even informed about what was happening. I asked myself, did this person do everything wrong, was there possibly nothing good about him?”
Bugeja claimed that Hitler had no knowledge of “atrocities” carried out during World War 2 and that it was his subordinate commanders who went “above and beyond his orders”.
“When you read history properly you can see that when he became chancellor, Hitler managed to expel all the Jews from Germany without killing a single person,” Bugeja said.
Jews and Communists had 'broken' Germany
Bugeja went on to say that “Jews and Communists and the Treaty of Versailles” had “broken” Germany and saddled it with mountainous debt prior to Hitler’s appointment as chancellor.
The author is employed as a correctional officer at the Corradino Correctional Facility.
The genocide of European Jews between 1941 and 1945, known as the Holocaust, has been widely documented. Nazi Germany and its collaborators murdered six million Jews across German-occupied Europe.
Broadcasting Authority CEO Joanna Spiteri told Times of Malta on Thursday that the BA had not received any complaints about the episode or the programme, but that it would be investigating the programme as part of regular screening procedures.
Bugeja thanked the council in the ‘special thanks’ segment of his book. However, in comments to Times of Malta, Book Council chair Mark Camilleri said the council had previously not been made aware that Bugeja had thanked them in his book and has sought legal advice on the matter.
“On behalf of the National Book Council, I want to firmly dissociate from the author, this book and its contents,” Camilleri said.
“The council did not disburse any funds to this author, nor did it promote or give any visibility to the publication in any way.”
Camilleri said that the council had not been aware of their acknowledgement in the publication and had only discovered this after the book was submitted for a nomination for the National Book Prize and an adjudicator contacted them to inform them about the contents of the book as well as the mention.
It later said its only involvement with the book was to provide the ISBN number, as the ISBN agent in Malta. Issuing the ISBN number is not related to the content of a publication, it said.
I want to firmly dissociate from the author, this book and its contents- National Book Council chair Mark Camilleri
In reply to questions, PBS editor Charles Dalli said the national broadcaster did not find Bugeja's statements acceptable and it had put the programme under review to address the issue with the programme's presenter and its producers.
He said that the producer typically informs PBS of the authors who are invited to the show but not the content.
"The content is subject to a quality control review. QC did not flag any issues. PBS is therefore evaluating the QC report of this particular programme and will take appropriate action once all the facts have been established," Dalli said.
Questions about what criteria must be met to be considered for coverage on the show should be addressed to the producers, he added.
"Remedial action, if deemed appropriate, will be announced in due course, after PBS has established all the facts," he said.
In reply to questions, the Culture Ministry said that it was not aware of the program and "definitely does not condone Mr Bugeja's declarations."
It said that PBS "writes its own internal policies" and that it is informed that PBS is carrying out its own investigation into the incident.
"Remedial action is exclusively within PBS's purview so the question should be asked to PBS directly," they said.
Activist Manuel Delia published excerpts of Bugeja’s book on his blog saying there is simply no excuse for the Maltese state to fund, endorse, enable, and publicise an anti-semitic, Holocaust-excusing, Hitler-worshipping book.
Delia said the author goads readers to examine their “indoctrination” on knowledge of Hitler.
“The aim of this book is to explain history in a different way – through a different lens – from what we normally read and hear on Adolf Hitler and the philosophy he believed in. I’m saying this because you normally only hear how he has been described for a long time. You only hear bad things about him. They always try to make you forget or destroy the good to take away the credit this Great man deserves,” the excerpt reads, according to Delia.
'Nazi propaganda' – PEN
In a statement, PEN Malta criticised the programme and demanded an explanation from TVM as to why it had allowed the promotion of a book that contains “Nazi propaganda” without critical appraisal.
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, said PEN Malta president Immanuel Mifsud.
“What we have here is a serious insult to the Maltese public, which funds TVM, and an even greater insult to all the victims of this historic violence and crimes against humanity by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
"We demand from TVM and Minister Owen Bonnici an immediate investigation into how this programme came to be broadcast and to tell us what actions they will take to prevent this from ever happening again.”
Foreign Minister Ian Borg also took to Twitter to condemn the publication of the Hitler biography.
"It is both tragic and incomprehensible that anyone can still write a book to defend and promote a dictator responsible for genocide and a terrible war," he wrote.
In a statement, the Nationalist Party condemned PBS for airing the program and promoting a publication that promotes Hitler and the Nazi regime, saying that this is not acceptable in a democratic society, especially when considering that the book is not factually correct and no attempts were made to challenge this content.
This, the PN said, was further confirmation of the "disaster in leadership" from the public broadcaster that has censored speeches by the Pope, the President, the PN and civil society but permits false propaganda related to Hilter.
"In light of this, Minister Owen Bonnici and PBS leadership must answer as to who will shoulder the responsibility for how the PBS has sunk to such lows and how they are going to assure that this does not happen again," they said.
In a statement on Friday, rule of law NGO Repubblika said that it also expects Bonnici to take "appropriate steps" to address this scandal and said that the people on PBS's editorial board who were involved must resign or be sacked by the minister if they refuse to do so.
"This scandal is another link to the chain of shame that has seen PBS transformed into a mediocre, amateurish and propaganda station instead of a service that provides education and objective information of quality and accuracy," they said.
"It is unacceptable that instead of educating people, the public broadcaster is being used to promote Hitler, Nazism and revisionist history."
Independent candidate Arnold Cassola said on Friday that he had made a complaint to the Broadcasting Authority, saying that the PBS show had served as an apologist platform for philosophies that promote racial hatred that characterised Adol Hitler's Nazi regime.
"Whoever at TVM and/or PBS approved the decision to allocate space to the exaltation of Adolf Hitler, with his hateful theories that go against the basic rules of human decency, must shoulder responsibility for this obscene decision."