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Karl Schembri
Ever had a job interview in bed? That’s what journalist Victor Grech had to endure in the name of PBS’s restructuring process while still recovering after a back operation.
That was the most surreal interview conducted by the PBS interviewing board assigned to decide who is to remain and who will be removed from the national television station. And the interviewing team is in a rush to meet deadlines.
Grech himself is one of those who will be chucked out of the PBS newsroom and redeployed to some government department, in the restructuring exercise that is meant to reduce the 180-strong workforce to a mere 60.
“Yes we couldn’t wait any longer,” PBS Chief Executive Andrew Psaila admitted when asked whether it was true that Grech had to face the interviewing board in bed. “We have to conclude this process.”
PBS reporters and anchors who have become household faces are disappearing one by one from the airwaves as a result of the hasty ‘restructuring.’ Some of them were informed of their interview over the phone.
Ivan Camilleri and Sue Mercieca have been granted early retirement (Friday was their last day of work); Tony Gaffiero and Leonard Callus will be retiring soon. Paul Azzopardi and Anna Bonanno will be redeployed with the government, together with reporters Natalie Attard and Antoinette Cassar.
Stripping
Peter Cossai’s future is uncertain, as he is awaiting disciplinary decisions related to his night time love for stripping. Joe Dimech, who applied for the job of TV coordinator, was turned down. The only faces that will remain are those of Ruth Amaira, appointed news coordinator, and Reno Bugeja, who will remain in the newsroom.
Of the five news cameramen, only one, David Gutteridge, will remain; two will retire and the other two will be redeployed.
Those waiting for the go-ahead to their early retirement request are anxious to leave as soon as possible, the applicants say, questioning why others were allowed to leave while they were kept dangling on board what is evidently a sinking ship.
The restructuring exercise will inevitably turn the public service broadcaster into a relay station transmitting farmed out commercial productions – a free-for-all for production houses who will now have a wider range of niches to hijack.
No sports department
Sport is one of them: the new PBS will have no sports department. The newsroom will have six journalists working alternate days, with only three on duty at any given time, who will also be required to do the sports reporting.
“It’s a farce,” one of the retiring journalists told MaltaToday. “How can you ever have a decent news bulletin with three journalists? And they are also required to report sports… it’s unbelievable.”
Another journalist said that if the PBS newsroom was muzzled because of political pressures, it will now become nonexistent.
“What sort of news stories do you expect from such a downsized newsroom?” the journalist said. “The Eight o’clock news already has the reputation of a notice board for political parties and now it will only get worse.”
The chief executive of PBS would not discuss whether his station will be offering a decent public news service.
“The terms of the restructuring process have been decided so it’s not a question of discussing how feasible or unfeasible they are,” Psaila said. “Our new structure demands total flexibility.”
“The truth is that experienced staff members are leaving and the same old incompetent managers will remain,” one of the workers on his way out told MaltaToday.
In the meantime, independent production houses are proposing hundreds of programmes. With nobody left to produce anything at PBS, they are having a field day.
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