Opinion: Owen Bonnici’s fairyland

Minister Owen Bonnici has been vociferously defending the state broadcaster PBS. He insisted that criticising PBS for being biased was “very very unfair”.

It wasn’t just criticism the PBS faced for being biased. PBS was condemned by repeated court rulings for its bias, based on a thorough assessment of the evidence.

In July 2022, the court slammed the state broadcaster declaring that it “failed its constitutional obligations” when it “failed to ensure impartiality and discriminated against the PN”.

The court insisted the right to freedom of expression should “no longer be trampled on”. The court lambasted the governing Labour Party for using “its power of incumbency to the full, even through the media” in a situation the court labelled “winner takes all”.

In a recent interview, Bonnici said:  “In reality both the Nationalist Party and the Labour Party have criticised and filed complaints against PBS because of imbalance of news reporting”.

He insisted this showed that accusations of bias came from both sides.  Bonnici claimed that he met people on the streets who believed “the 8pm news is biased against the Labour Party”.

Bonnici is being deviously dishonest.  The truth is very far from what diehard Labour supporters, brainwashed by Labour’s ONE TV, are led to believe.

A detailed analysis carried out by the Broadcasting Authority over 11 months between April 2023 and February 2024 revealed that PBS interviewed 351 Labour MPs and representatives but just 27 Opposition members.

That’s less than 10% exposure to the PN compared to Labour.   The Broadcasting Authority hammered PBS over its “imbalance”.  The BA insisted that “PBS is obliged to ensure impartiality”.  The BA warned PBS it would take “more ulterior measures” if PBS failed to abide by its direction.

In a separate ruling handed down in March 2023, the Broadcasting Authority found PBS discriminated against the PN three times in just five days.

PBS hadn’t even reported on a PN press conference at St Luke’s Hospital.  When a Senglea belvedere project faced significant criticism, PBS aired a propaganda item praising the work done on the belvedere without referencing any criticism of the project.

When former PN secretary general Michael Piccinino announced he would be stepping down to contest the general elections, PBS failed to report his comments.  At the same time, it gave Ramona Attard, who announced her imminent resignation as Labour Party president, huge prominence airing her comments on its prime time news.

In a May 2024 ruling, the court ordered PBS to pay €2,000 in damages to the PN after finding its rights had been breached.

PBS failed to report on the PN’s requests for a public inquiry into Jean Paul Sofia’s death.  PBS completely ignored the chaotic scenes in parliament and outside when Sofia’s family members loudly protested against the government’s decision to reject a request for a public inquiry.

Yet when pressed about claims that PBS prioritises pro-government news, Bonnici insisted that improvements were ongoing and “stressed the importance of editorial discretion”.  Bonnici knows that PBS is a government-owned company whose board is appointed by the Labour government and whose editorial coverage is controlled by the ruling party.  There is no editorial discretion.

PBS’s editorial board implements the direction given by Labour. That’s the conclusion reached by the Centre for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) which published a study assessing the editorial independence of the world’s public media.

Malta’s PBS was classified by the report’s authors as “state-controlled media” – the worst category possible. CMDS Director, Marius Dragamir noted that “editorial control is the most serious issue”.

The study found that PBS was particularly vulnerable to political influence because Labour has “a significant and direct influence on its structure” and because “its board of directors as well as its editorial board are appointed by the State”.

CMDS’ director added that “judging by the facts… and the research we have conducted in Malta, the future of the public media in Malta is bleak.”

Minister Bonnici insisted that “there is a system in place where if there is an imbalance, one can file a complaint with the Broadcasting Authority which will then rule on the matter”

The court repeatedly condemned the Broadcasting Authority for failing to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities.

In February 2023, the court ordered the Broadcasting Authority to pay PN damages for allowing unconstitutional partisan broadcasting during the 2022 general elections campaign. PBS had utterly ignored the Authority’s notices, and the court found that the Broadcasting Authority had done nothing to address PBS’ defiance.

The court ruled that the Broadcasting Authority had breached Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which deals with freedom of expression, and Article 45 of the Maltese Constitution, which refers to protection from discrimination on the basis of political opinion. It fined the Authority €5,000, which the taxpayer paid.

In a separate ruling, the court found that PBS took three months to publish a right of reply the PN had won. PBS ignored the Broadcasting Authority’s first ruling, and the PN was compelled to file a second complaint.

Yet Minister Owen Bonnici still keeps pushing the lie that the complaint system to the Broadcasting Authority “works well”. In fact, it only works well for the Labour Party controlling it.

Bonnici should have been sacked when he was found guilty of breaching human rights.  Instead, he’s still there defending PBS and the Broadcasting Authority for doing the same.