PBS: Amplifying ignorance is not a public service

The statement issued this week by the Malta Women’s Lobby (MWL) is more than a rebuke to the national broadcaster. It is a warning about the erosion of the very principles that underpin a healthy democracy.

Public service media, in any functioning democratic society, exist to inform, educate, and represent the diverse realities of the public they serve. Their role is not to act as another arena for partisan provocation nor to boost personalities whose appeal rests on controversy rather than credibility.

The mandate of a state broadcaster funded by taxpayers is rooted in fairness, factual rigour, and a commitment to upholding human rights, including women’s rights.

The MWL’s concern is a stark one: that PBS has chosen to hand a publicly funded media platform to Ricky Caruana, “an individual with no known journalistic or media qualifications”, whose online presence is defined by a stream of retrograde, false, and openly misogynistic commentary.

In doing so, the MWL argues, PBS is effectively rewarding discrimination with visibility and money – resources that come directly from the public purse, women’s contributions included.

This is not merely a poor editorial decision. It cuts to the heart of PBS’s statutory duty. A public broadcaster should serve as a safeguard against discrimination, not a conveyor belt for it.

If those entrusted with shaping public discourse normalise content that trivialises sexual harassment, derides feminist movements, and promotes gender segregation in workplaces, what message does that send to the girls and young women who are told that equality is a national value?

A profoundly troubling power dynamic is at play. Malta has no shortage of women with expertise in media, politics, social policy, economics, law, and lived experience who struggle for airtime. Yet a man with a record of online outbursts that diminish half the population is given a prime platform.

Why? Because he’s part of the Labour Party’s wider strategy – another attempt to tighten its grip on the public sphere, as though the government doesn’t already dominate it. Now it’s trying to weaken the few independent voices that hold it to account, rewarding ignorance in the process. But this time, the backlash is landing where it matters.

The optics are damning: knowledge and expertise are sidelined, while ignorance is amplified.

Predictably, this will likely be defended under the familiar banners of “free speech” and “balanced debate”. But as the MWL points out, this reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of both concepts. Free speech protects the right to express opinions. It does not oblige a national broadcaster to amplify uninformed, prejudiced rhetoric. Impartiality requires a fair representation of fact-based viewpoints, not the artificial pairing of expertise with bigotry in the name of “balance”.

European public broadcasters, from the BBC to ARD and France Télévisions, are increasingly scrutinised for how they handle misinformation, hate speech, and representation. Malta cannot afford to lag behind at a time when disinformation and polarisation are undermining public trust across the continent.

The European Broadcasting Union’s guidelines are clear: public service media should foster social cohesion, promote equality, and counter harmful stereotypes. Anything less is a dereliction of duty.

The MWL’s statement is therefore not simply an expression of outrage but a demand for accountability and editorial courage.

Public service broadcasting must recognise that some viewpoints are not just “controversial”; they are incompatible with the principles of equality and dignity that democratic institutions are meant to uphold.

Women should not be made to finance their own humiliation through taxes. Nor should public media legitimise voices that drag the country backwards in terms of gender equality, which is an area where Malta is already struggling, ranking below the EU average in the European Institute for Gender Equality’s 2024 index.

Public service media belongs to all of us. It should reflect our shared humanity, rather than demeaning a significant portion of the population. The Malta Women’s Lobby is right: the public deserves better.