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Karl Schembri
The national public broadcasting station is still headhunting for a news manager, two months since it issued its first call for applications.
Not that many journalists are left there to manage: there is definitely nobody left to read the 11pm news (it is being recorded) as the ongoing restructuring exercise so far has only stripped PBS of its expertise and resources, with morale among the remaining workers at an all-time low.
Indicatively, the PBS website (pbs.com.mt) yesterday carried the “news headlines” of two weeks ago entitled: “Education” and “Accountable” – one reporting a speech by Lawrence Gonzi, the other a speech by Alfred Sant.
Journalists are about to be evacuated from their modern news centre to two small rooms that will be joined together. The news studio is about to be dismantled to make space for new programmes and independent production houses in the upcoming schedule.
Contacted yesterday for his comments about what his employees are calling “a veritable public broadcasting disaster,” Chief Executive Andrew Psaila declined to speak.
“Send me whatever you have to tell me in writing,” he said.
When interviewed last month, the Chairman of the PBS Editorial Board, Fr Joe Borg, said: “I say, in the most categorical of ways, that I don’t believe this is the case.”
karl@newsworksltd.com
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