Marlene Farrugia vs Joe Debono Grech incident: BA raps PBS for 'seriously failing' duties

The Broadcasting Authority today accused Public Broadcasting Services of having “seriously failed” its duties when it decided not to refer to an incident in Parliament between Labour MP Joe Debono Grech and independent MP Marlene Farrugia at the first opportunity of learning about it.

In its decision on a complaint moved by the Nationalist Party, the authority ruled that the station’s duty was to report facts as quickly as possible after learning about them.

The station’s argument that it had been waiting for the Speaker’s ruling to report the incident was a serious shortcoming especially since at the end of the 8pm news bulletin on November 20, when the incident happened, the newscaster said that a detailed report would be given in the next bulletin and on tvm.com.mt.

In spite of the fact that the station mentioned the incident during an interview with the leader of the Opposition on November 22, and that it reported the Speaker’s ruling and the new conference that followed by the Opposition leader on November 23, PBS still failed in its duty to give spectators the news with the immediacy due.

The authority also said it was preoccupied that PBS, which was the national...