Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1515076
actually speak on behalf of the Church-owned station, to be- gin with). Simply put: what Andrew Azzopardi said was that HE – i.e., Azzopardi himself, in his own personal capacity – would refuse to allow Norman Low- ell as a guest on his own pro- gramme. By no means does it follow, however, that RTK Ra- dio will automatically follow suit… and likewise choose to 'defy the BA's directives', at an as-yet undetermined point in future. And this fact, alone, drags all sorts of other considerations into the debate. Suddenly, it looks as though Andrew Azzo- pardi was fined, for merely ex- pressing his own private opin- ion – notwithstanding the fact that he has an inalienable right to do so: according to both the Universal Charter of Human Rights, and also the Constitu- tion of Malta. By the same token: it seems that RTK Radio was fined for allowing Azzopardi to air those personal views of his (even if the station is likewise obliged, by the same interna- tional treaties and laws, to do precisely that). So again, I ask: how on earth can any of this possibly be ham- mered into any semblance of 'logic' and 'reason'? The short answer, I suppose, is that… it can't. And not just for the rea- sons given above, either. No: it you ask me, the real problem with the BA's un- earthly decision is that it en- tirely overlooks all the PRAC- TICAL and LOGISTICAL aspects, of the entire 'impar- tiality' obligation itself. Let's go back to it again, shall we? According to the Consti- tution (or at least, the Consti- tutional Court's interpretation thereof) private broadcast- ing media are to '[apportion] broadcasting facilities and time fairly between persons belonging to different political parties." And while it may sound all 'fair-and-square', on paper… the reality is that it places an almost impossible onus, on- to private stations (including RTK) that – unlike their State- owned competitors – do not benefit from an 'open cheque', signed off by the Maltese tax-payer; nor do they have the same resources/manpower, as the glorified 'government department' that PBS has be- come. Consider, for instance, the last MEP election in June 2019. On that occasion, there were no fewer than 41 [forty-one] individual candidates, on the same ballot sheet. The Labour Party alone fielded 14: (Alfred Sant, Mary Gauci, Lorna Vassallo, Robert Micallef, Cyrus Engerer, Alex Agius Saliba, Felix Busuttil, Miriam Dalli, James Grech, Joe Sammut, Josianne Cutajar, Fleur Vella, Noel Cassar, and Josef Caruana). The Nationalist Party, 10: (Roberta Metsola, David Casa, Francis Zammit Dimech, Peter Agius, Dione Borg, Michael Briguglio, Frank Psaila, Rose- lyn Borg Knight, Michael Mer- cieca, and David Stellini.) Alternattiva Demokratika started out with three can- didates – Arnold Cassola, Carmel Cacopardo, and Mi- na Tolu – with Cassola later re-registering as an independ- ent candidate. Meanwhile, the Democrat- ic Party fielded four (Martin Cauchi Inglott, Anthony Butt- igieg, Godfrey Farrugia and Camilla Appelgren); Alleanza Bidla, two (Ivan Grech Mintoff and Rebecca Dalli Gonzi); an- other two for Moviment Pat- trijotti Maltin (Simon Borg and Naged Magelly)… Then there was Antonie P. Borg, contesting on behalf of the 'Brain Not Ego' party; while Stephen Florian, Naz- zareno Bonnici (Ta' L-Ajkla), Mario Borg and Joseph Aqui- lina all contested as independ- ent candidates. Lastly, of course, there was Norman Lowell himself: the sole candidate for Imperium Europa. Now: let's say the campaign itself runs for 12 weeks; and each of those candidates is al- lotted (on average) 10 minutes' worth of airtime on your sta- tion. That's 410 minutes, that have to be diverted from (or some- how accommodated into) your current broadcasting sched- ule…. invariably resulting in other programmes (possibly, quite lucrative ones) being temporarily 'axed', for that purpose. On top of that, each of those candidates will have to be in- dividually interviewed; debates (where applicable) will have to be moderated; and all the while, there will be an endless array of daily campaign events, organised by all those parties/ candidates, to also attend (and report from)… …not to mention all the oth- er daily duties of a news outlet, that still have to be carried out regardless of any ongoing elec- tion campaign (after all, 'stuff' still happens at election-time, you know. And it all has to be allotted its own fair share of news-coverage, too). I could go on, of course; but once you factor in all the extra hands those private stations will have to hire, from one day to the next, just to cope with the sheer demand… as well as all the extra 'over-time' sala- ries, that still have to be budg- eted for… Weigh it all up together, and I think you'll find that this 'im- partiality obligation' – apart from being downright absurd, in and of itself – is also just a teeny-weenie little bit… … IMPOSSIBLE, quite frank- ly. maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 JANUARY 2024 OPINION 11 Unless the BA takes its decisions by looking into a crystal ball… there is simply no way in Hell the authority can decide, from now, that RTK will indeed be guilty of breaching its 'electoral campaign directives'… four whole months before the campaign even gets under way.