PBS ‘hides’ Ricky in response to PN court case

PBS has issued a statement rejecting the Nationalist Party’s allegations of broadcasting bias without referring to Ricky Caruana or addressing the complaints concerning his blatant political activities and the enforcement of presenter impartiality rules.

The state broadcaster said it would defend itself fully in court.

Its response focused on the distribution of government and opposition interventions in news coverage, one of two principal strands of the PN’s constitutional application against PBS and the Broadcasting Authority.

The other concerns presenters’ impartiality, with Caruana cited as a prime example of alleged failures to enforce broadcasting rules and PBS’s ethical guidelines. Caruana is not a defendant.

In May, The Shift reported that Caruana had promoted Labour candidates through social media posts and appearances at electoral activities while presenting current affairs on TVM. The report included an appearance interviewing Silvio Schembri at a campaign rally and posts promoting Labour campaign material.

PBS’s ethical guidelines, reproduced in that reporting, require news and current affairs presenters to maintain impartiality outside the studio. They prohibit public support for political parties and endorsements of candidates, and cover social media activity and conduct outside working hours.

The editorial board is chaired by Engelbert Grech, with Charles Flores and Reno Bugeja as members.

In June, a PBS spokesperson told The Shift that the three members were responsible for upholding standards and enforcing the code.

The Shift reported then that no investigation or disciplinary action concerning the reported campaigning had been publicly announced. It had asked the board whether it had investigated the reported breaches or directed management to act. PBS’s latest statement gives no details of any such measures.

The PN’s application also alleges that Caruana receives payments from ministries and government entities to promote their work, an arrangement also prohibited under PBS’s code of ethics. It argues that these arrangements create conflicts when he interviews ministers on the public broadcaster.

PBS did not address those allegations in its response.

Leaving the DJ turned current affairs presenter entirely out of its statement, PBS concentrated its response on the imbalance in news interviews, stating that most government interventions concerned ministerial duties, policies, services, schemes and projects.

The broadcaster also said balance could not be measured through numerical totals alone and maintained that its discussion programmes provided equal space to government and opposition.

Caruana’s programme is scheduled to continue in October under the title Wara l-Ħdax ma’ Ricky.

The Shift previously reported, citing unnamed PBS sources, that the Prime Minister’s office had intervened to retain it despite opposition from senior Labour figures who consider Caruana unfit for the role.

So far, PBS has refused to state how much Ricky Caruana is being paid from public coffers. The Shift is informed that these payments amount to thousands of euros a week.