Walking the tightrope of impartiality

The PBS board of directors has taken exception to the editorial titled 'It's good news, according to PBS', which appeared on March 14. The board issued both a statement, which was read out on the main 8pm TVM news bulletin that same day, and also sent a letter for publication to the Times of Malta (which appeared last Friday). The first thing to note is that it was the board of directors that reacted and this when, besides its own news set-up, PBS also has an editorial board. Secondly, the board seems to prefer to focus solely on "balance and impartiality in broadcasting". Balance and impartiality are demanded by the Broadcasting Act and the Constitution, as the board rightly points out. But taxpayers expect more, much more, from the State broadcaster than just walking the impartiality tightrope in news management. Yet, even if one were only to focus just on balance and impartiality, fingers could still be pointed at PBS, now and in the past. Take what the outgoing Ombudsman, Chief Justice Emeritus Joseph Said Pullicino, a former chairman of the Broadcasting Authority, told The Sunday Times: "I think that PBS was never impartial. It's just a question ofhow biased it is. A matter...

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