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Karl Schembri
The Broadcasting Authority removed a Business Study that focuses on the national radio and television stations from its website last Tuesday following press reports appeared quoting confidential commercial information that was easily accessible on the document.
“The authority decided to remove the report from the website after it resulted that it was not secure for publication,” the BA’s Head of Research and Communication said in a press statement last Tuesday, adding that the report would be published online again once the authority has “adequate guarantees” about the confidential parts.
Drawn up by Grant Thornton on commission by the BA, the Business Study of the national radio and television services contains figures and graphs revealing the stations’ advertising revenues, audience ratings and advertising agencies’ practices that were specifically asked by the informants to remain withheld from publication.
A particularly revealing ‘confidential’ section shows that the two political stations lost almost Lm3.4 million between them over a period of eight years between 1995 and 2002.
Axiak said the authority did not accept any responsibility for the incident, seemingly pointing its finger at Grant Thornton, although BA Chairman Joseph Said Pullicino apologised for the mistake on Net Television last Thursday night during the programme Opinjonisti.
When contacted, BA Chief Executive Kevin Aquilina told MaltaToday that there were no official complaints from radio and television stations although he would not go into the question of who was responsible for the publication of the confidential information.
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