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Karl Schembri
The PBS restructuring process reached surreal heights last week with the appointment of the financial controller at the station and coach of Birkirkara FC, Stephen Azzopardi, to Head of Sport, in what is a clear conflict of interest.
PBS Chief Executive Andrew Psaila declined to comment when contacted, and questions sent by e-mail about the appointment remained unanswered, but outside the national broadcasting station the news has caused bewilderment and criticism.
Football commentators say Azzopardi’s position as B’Kara coach should have made him accept “anything but sport.”
“What will he do when PBS has to report about his own team?” one observer said. “Even when it’s not directly about his team, his journalistic judgement will always be impaired for as long as he remains with B’Kara.”
Azzopardi’s appointment was not the only one to baffle observers of the ongoing restructuring process at PBS.
The appointment of four new journalists following the exodus of some of the most experienced talent at the newsroom is still a mystery for some who were called for interviews.
Sources say PBS might well end up employing five, if not six journalists, although the reasons behind this possible decision are still unclear. Daphne Cassar Darien – formerly a part-time reporter – has been selected, as have been Mario Micallef of RTK and Antonia Micallef of Net TV. Sources say that Super 1 sports reporter Norma Saliba has also been selected, but her appointment remains clouded in mystery as another person who was interviewed had purportedly fared better with the selection board.
Also, yet another interviewee who works with Net TV was informed that he was selected. Questions sent to the chief executive about journalists’ recruitment also remained unanswered.
But the most difficult appointment is proving to be that of news manager, almost three months since the first call for applications was made. A handful of people selected have changed their minds in the process while others disagreed about the financial package, and still others were discarded by the selection board.
Sources also pointed out the glaring contradiction in the restructuring process (they refer to it as “destructuring”), whereby people who are paid thousands of public money for early retirement are being re-engaged by the station.
A former full-time mechanic who received Lm17,000 as an early retirement scheme is now working privately on the same PBS vehicles he used to service. An engineer who was in charge of the maintenance of the Gharghur antenna, who got a similar early retirement payment, is also now contracted privately to keep doing the same job. Asked about these cases too, Psaila declined to answer.
In the mean time journalists Anna Bonanno and Paul Azzopardi have been redeployed with the Department of Information, while Manwel Zammit, Alfred Mousù and Victor Grech are still awaiting news of where they will be transferred.
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