The Shift’s reporting on Reno Bugeja’s conflict of interest triggers media freedom alert

The Shift’s reporting on former PBS broadcaster and government employee Reno Bugeja, who was appointed to the Public Broadcasting Services’ (PBS) editorial board while receiving €70,000 per year from an advisory role with the office of the Parliamentary Secretary for Equality, triggered a Media Freedom alert published by the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF).

“The dual role means Bugeja now sits on the PBS body responsible for overseeing news policy and ensuring balanced reporting while simultaneously working as a paid adviser to the government,” the ECPMF’s alert reads.

“Critics cited by local media expressed concern that this arrangement could undermine the perception of independence and impartiality at the national broadcaster. The PBS editorial board functions as an oversight mechanism intended to ensure that the broadcaster’s output complies with its public service mandate and editorial standards,” the alert adds.

Bugeja’s lucrative advisory contract was only revealed following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request filed by The Shift. The income earned from this advisory role tops up his state pension as a former PBS employee.

Prior this newsroom’s reporting, Bugeja was on regular rotation on government-friendly TV programmes, posing as an independent journalist while pocketing a salary that is higher than the salary he was paid as PBS’ editor after he was appointed to that role by disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat in 2013.

Following Bugeja’s retirement in 2020, the veteran broadcaster appears to have quickly pivoted to his full-time role as communications advisor to Parliamentary Secretary for Equality Rebecca Buttigieg – without publicly disclosing the role he has been serving in since 2023.

Over the years, the ECPMF, alongside several other prominent international press freedom organisations, has been highly critical of the government’s mismanagement of PBS and the media sector as a whole. Despite generous subsidies, PBS continues to haemorrhage taxpayer money year after year and is classified as a public broadcaster fully captured by the state.

After public pressure to urgently reform the media sector began to subside over the past couple of years, the government has effectively dropped any pretences that it is interested in carrying out any serious changes to protect the independent press, preferring instead to continue leveraging its dominance over the local advertising market to keep newsrooms in line.