Some time back, on 2 September 2007, I wrote a letter entitled ‘PBS Editorial Board in Limbo’.

This dealt mainly with the resignation of John Camilleri from the chairmanship of the Editorial Board after he lost his battle with Joe Fenech Conti, chairman of the Board of Directors of PBS, who had the last word where TV programme scheduling was concerned.

In the same contribution to your paper, I also criticised the two other members of the Editorial Board who chose to stay on, despite their wholehearted support for Mr Camilleri, and in spite of their untiring criticism of the Board of Directors’ departure from the National Broadcasting Policy, amongst other things.

We now have another situation where the Board of Directors, yet again, overruled the decision of the Editorial Board. This notwithstanding, they still have the nerve to stay on. What is actually instigating them to hold on to their appointments is only known to them; we can only guess. Don’t they realise that they have now been relegated to hell?

Not only did they fail to win the respect they claim they deserve, but they have confirmed that have no role whatsoever to play: not even a consultative one. It would be better for the two directors on the Editorial Board to swallow their pride and call it a day. After all, there exists that thing we all call self-respect.

I wonder whether they made it their business to question both Minister Zammit Dimech and Fr Joe Borg (the minister’s consultant on broadcasting) for failing to come to their rescue, publicly, at this time of need, as Minister Gatt did for the Board Directors. Could they have been advised to stay on, no matter the embarrassment?

Surely, that’s not the right advice one would expect from a good friend.

John G. Borg-Bartolo

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