The Nationalist Party has highlighted that in four decisions by the Broadcasting Authority, “PBS has once again been found guilty of broadcasting partisan political advertising, violating its obligation to impartiality, and breaching a Broadcasting Authority directive regarding Budget advertisements.”

In a statement on Monday, the PN explained that “after the Public Broadcasting Services continued to defy a court order and kept airing political advertisements, the Broadcasting Authority instructed PBS not to broadcast any Budget-related advertisement without its approval.”

The PN said that “PBS violated this directive multiple times and was consequently found guilty of airing these advertisements illegally.”

According to the PN, PBS was fined tens of thousands of euro for each of these breaches. The Nationalist Party said it “hopes these fines will be paid by those who broke the law and not by the Maltese and Gozitan people.”

It added that “TVM buried this news in its bulletin by broadcasting it on Christmas Eve, with the decisions being read at 8:30pm, towards the end of the bulletin.”

The PN argued that “the news was delivered in a way that was incomprehensible, with no reference to the cases PBS was found guilty of, nor the fact that it was the PN that lodged these complaints.”

The PN concluded by saying that it will “continue to take all necessary measures to ensure that Robert Abela and his Government stop using the station, which is supposed to serve the people, as if it were Super One 2.”

The statement was signed by, Michael Piccinino PN Secretary General and Claudette Buttigieg Shadow Minister for Public Administration, Public Broadcasting, and the Fight Against Diabetes.

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