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Karl Schembri
Investments Minister Austin Gatt is finding it difficult to appoint a new chairman for Public Broadcasting Services following Michael Mallia’s forced resignation last Wednesday, according to government sources.
MaltaToday is informed that individuals approached privately by Gatt even before Mallia’s resignation had refused the offer to head the national broadcasting station.
Last year, the same ‘vacancy’ had already proved to be a headache for Gatt after the Managing Director of Vodafone Malta, Joe Grioli, turned down the offer to take the helm of PBS instead of Austin Sammut, who was removed after only six months in office.
Now, with the restructuring process still ongoing and with the important post of news manager still vacant, the absence of a chairman is more critical than ever, while the roles of Chief Executive Andrew Psaila, the chairman of the editorial board Fr Joe Borg and the four directors on the PBS board are also being questioned.
With both Gatt and Mallia refusing firmly to comment, the reasons behind the resignation remain obscure except for the minister’s vague reference to “certain decisions” taken by Mallia “that are not in line with ministry policies.”
News of the resignation was only announced in a terse two-sentence DOI press release, saying that the minister had accepted Mallia’s resignation and “thanked him for the services he gave” during his 15 months in office – a remark that is said to have incensed the former chairman who was explicitly told to resign by Gatt.
Reports in the Malta Labour Party media that the minister decided to get rid of Mallia after the latter refused to appoint as news manager an employee with the Nationalist TV station NET have been neither denied nor confirmed.
However, the minister’s original statement sent to MaltaToday two weeks ago following questions regarding the employment of certain former PBS employees who were given Lm17,000 golden handshakes suggested that Mallia’s fallout was triggered by such decisions.
PBS directors and managers say Mallia had a way of presenting them with decisions he would have taken on his own, putting into question their own input in the massive restructuring exercise that has been going on at the national TV station.
But other decisions that were met with a public outcry, including the decision to scrap Radju Bronja and to shed off some of the most veteran broadcasters, were planned and approved by Gatt himself as part of the restructuring process.
Last August, Fr Borg said in an interview with MaltaToday that “actually, one of the reasons” why he believed the much-criticised restructuring “will work this time round is because of the dynamic presence of Austin Gatt and Michael Mallia.”
The PBS chairmanship has always been a hot seat under the constant preying gaze of Government and Opposition. Now, with staff cut down from 180 to a mere 60 workers, PBS as the national broadcaster is in a worse state than ever and even public broadcasting advocates find it hard to imagine how the station can fulfil its public service obligations under any chairman after Mallia, who was a loose cannon in his own right.
karl@newsworksltd.com
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