Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1518643
"WHY should political parties have to get into debt to run TV stations to ensure they have a voice? Can't they be given a voice on the public broadcast- er, which we ultimately fund through our taxes, to ensure we can hear the full picture? However, the government wants to control everything… "[…] Until we have decency and people who lead by exam- ple, we cannot close [Net and One TV] down. But do I agree? Yes, in an ideal world, we won't have party-owned TV stations, but public TV stations that give you the full picture and the possibility of independent media that can criticise and at- tack whoever it wants. That is the ideal situation, and we are far away from it." In case you were wondering, that's a quote by former PN leader Simon Busuttil, dur- ing an interview with MZPN's Miirko Sant last Wednesday: specifically, in answer to a question about political media ownership [Note: as I can't be bothered to type that out every single time, it will be 'PMO' from now on]. Now: just to be clear, Simon Busuttil spoke about a heck of a lot more than just PMO, in a wide-ranging interview which also focused on (among other topics): neutrality; im- migration; voter-apathy; war in Ukraine; the militarisation of Europe; the choice of Malta' new President; his own former political career… … the least of which, I might add, should in theory have attracted far more press cov- erage, than the question of 'whether Simon Busuttil him- self agrees or not, with the continued existence of NET and One TV.' But oh, well. It's a strange country we live in, at the end of the day; and Busuttil's answer to that one question, ended up becoming the only aspect of the entire interview to even be reported, at all (at least, at the time of writing.) So let's take a closer look at it, shall we? Starting with the small observation that – far from being a 'scoop' – Busut- til's opinion on the subject of PMO is actually just a reflec- tion of the Nationalist Party's last-known official position on the issue, published way back in 2019 (i.e., two years after Busuttil resigned as PN lead- er). It might have gone unnoticed at the time: but five whole years ago, the PN launched a policy document that specif- ically called for the abolition of PMO. This is how it was reported: "[The PN] warned that the formation of political media stations had the add- ed effect of reinforcing parti- san blindness and propagan- da from both major parties, therefore weakening the abili- ty of Maltese citizens to inform themselves and reach their own political conclusions. "This has caused damage to the truth, justice and democra- cy […] The PN is ready to en- gage in discussions on the way forward, particularly with the goodwill of the Labour Party, so that the two of us can give up our broadcasting licenses and focus on our true aim as political parties […]." The same document also insisted that: "[The nation- al broadcaster] must ensure that everyone's viewpoints are broadcast in a balanced, whole and free manner, with no ob- struction and in full respect to the fundamental rights of ex- pression and association…" Indeed, the two statements echo each other so much (Busuttil likewise observed that PMO causes 'unnecessary division') that it wouldn't sur- prise me one bit, to discover that the former PN leader ac- tually had a hand in writing that 2019 policy document, himself… Either way, however: a cou- ple of small questions need to be asked (though ideally, they should have been asked during the interview itself.) Question #1: Departing from the premise – and I stand to be corrected, naturally – that the PN's 2019 policy-paper has never formally been withdrawn (and as such, is still in force to- day)… … why has the Nationalist Party not 'led by example', and closed down its own television and radio stations, at any point during the five whole years it's been telling us it wants to do precisely that? What, in a nut- shell, is 'holding it back'? To be fair, Busuttil did pro- vide an answer to that one, even if he wasn't asked direct- ly. It's because (to paraphrase) the imbalance on TVM would maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 APRIL 2024 10 OPINION The real problem with party-owned stations? They're illegal Raphael Vassallo