Payments for Ricky’s programme not to be disclosed – PBS

The chief executive of Malta’s public broadcaster has declined to disclose how much state funding is being directed to privately produced current affairs programmes, some fronted by media personalities viewed as close to the government.

Keith Chetcuti, chief executive of the Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) and an appointee of the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), rejected a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by The Shift seeking details of contracts awarded to independent producers and presenters, including Ricky Caruana, Saviour Balzan and Luke Dalli.

Chetcuti said the documents contained “exempt matter” under Malta’s FOI rules, arguing that the information included trade secrets and commercially sensitive material that could harm the interests of third parties.

“The requested records are likely to contain exempt matter, including trade secrets and commercially sensitive information relating to independent producers and counterparties. Any disclosure would therefore necessitate extensive third-party consultation and redaction,” he said in a written response.

The request followed growing calls for transparency over the use of public funds to support specific programmes, including Ricky’s Debates, hosted by DJ-turned-presenter Ricky Caruana, who has faced criticism from women’s groups for making misogynistic remarks.

Caruana rejects the claims.

The Shift has appealed, arguing that the contracts are of public interest as they involve taxpayer money intended to support impartial broadcasting.

Sources within PBS said all discussion-based current affairs programmes, described by one insider as “a rotation of talking heads with minimal editorial substance”, are financed through the broadcaster’s public service obligation, an annual €6 million government subvention designed to sustain the loss-making organisation.

The process for selecting private producers is reportedly overseen by the OPM’s communications office, headed by Edward Montebello, formerly head of news at Labour’s ONE TV. Programmes such as Ricky’s Debates, Xtra and Bla Rispetti are estimated to cost taxpayers several thousand euro per week.

PBS has historically been reluctant to publish details of payments to individual producers, a stance that has persisted across successive administrations.

Under previous Nationalist Party governments, similar criticism was levelled at opaque arrangements with presenters such as Peppi Azzopardi and Lou Bondì, the latter a former Nationalist communications official who later aligned with Labour following disgraced former Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s 2013 election victory.

Until recently, PBS published summaries of public funding allocations across its programming schedule, but this information is no longer made available.

The most recent data, from 2021, show PBS spent about €1.2 million on its news operations and €600,000 on productions by Saviour Balzan across four schedules between 2018 and 2021. Hundreds of thousands of euro were also allocated to other programmes, some of which have been criticised for falling outside the broadcaster’s public service remit.

The National Statistics Office has yet to conduct a comprehensive audit of how PBS deploys its state funding.