MaltaToday can reveal that the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) had a direct hand in co-ordinating the recent ill-fated advertising campaign on Primary Health Reform – a campaign which had to be withdrawn upon orders by the Broadcasting Authority, after it was found to violate national legislation on political advertising.
It was sister Maltese-language newspaper Illum which revealed, in an article last Sunday, how an advertising campaign conducted by the Health Ministry about the Primary Health Reform had fallen foul of the Broadcasting Authority (BA).
In a circular to all broadcasting stations issued by BA chief executive officer Pierre Cassar on 18 December, Cassar reminded all radio and television stations that “the Broadcasting Act prohibits political advertising except when this is authorised under a scheme of political broadcasts approved by the Broadcasting Authority.
“This advert violates the provision in question of the Broadcasting Act and should be stopped immediately,” Cassar had warned. The Authority said it was stopping “all similar advertising”.
In his circular, the BA chief explained that the Authority gave “a wide interpretation of that provision and therefore would not also allow advertising whose aim is the promotion of public policy”, such as the Primary Health Reform.
He warned all broadcasting stations that the Authority would be issuing a charge against the broadcasting stations that persisted in broadcasting the adverts in question.
The Primary Health Reform advertising campaign was entrusted by the Health Secretariat to Content House: a media company founded by former Times journalist (and Malta Enterprise director) Jesmond Bonello, known for his connections to the Nationalist Party.
Adverts were initially restricted to a selection of media outlets, from which MaltaToday was excluded up until the last minute, when a single order was placed for a black and white advertisement.
Asked what kind of involvement the OPM had in the selection of the media companies for its various media campaigns over the years, Gordon Pisani, the OPM’s Head of Communications, yesterday replied telegraphically:
“The Communications Office holds regular meetings to discuss, plan and co-ordinate communication and information campaigns.”
According to Pisani, during the meetings “the consultation process related to the strengthening of the primary healthcare was discussed during these meetings”.
But sources close to the Health Parliamentary Secretariat told MaltaToday that the OPM had “significant input” in the choice of media companies for the various media campaigns conducted by Ministry over the years, including the latest health reform campaign.
Pisani chose not to reply questions regarding the directions he or his Office gave to the Health Ministry or to Content House in the selection of the different media chosen for the Health Ministry’s advertising campaigns over the past few years.
Asked to elaborate on which criteria were the different media selected by Content House, whether there was a series of pre-established criteria or whether the choice was made in a subjective manner, and to publish these criteria if such objective criteria existed, Pisani merely referred us to the Health Secretariat.
“I am informed that questions regarding adverts allocation were also sent to the Health Secretariat,” he told MaltaToday. “The Secretariat will reply to your questions.”
MaltaToday also sent a series of questions to the Health Ministry asking how many advertising and PR contracts were granted by the Health Ministry and its department and entities to Content House Limited over the past five years.
“Content House was only engaged directly to work on the advertising campaign in relation to the Government’s consultation process with regards to the strengthening of the primary health care document,” the Health Parliamentary Secretariat’s spokesperson said.
He claimed that Content House “was never granted any other advertising and PR contracts over the past five years by the Health Ministry”.
As to determining the advertising spread across different media, the Health Secretariat spokesperson said succinctly: “The newspaper advertising budget was determined objectively according to continuous survey results on readership and circulation levels,” without revealing the names of the surveys in question.
MaltaToday later asked the Health Secretariat to divulge the names of the surveys used by Content House and the Health Ministry to determine the advertising spend, however no reply was forthcoming by the time we went to print late yesterday evening.
The surveys cited by the Health Secretariat to determine the advertising spend are being contested by various media companies, including MediaToday.
This incident was not the first time that the BA stopped a Ministerial advertising campaign after it was deemed to constitute ‘political advertising’.
In January 2008, when the electoral campaign for the 8 March 2008 General Elections was gearing up, the BA had stopped an advertising campaign by the Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications advertising Malta as “The Smart Island”.
In that campaign, a number of personalities had taken part in tv, print and radio adverts illustrating the use of IT in various aspects of daily life. However, that advertising campaign had been stopped by the BA Board after it was deemed as political advertising after the BA had widened the definition to include adverts which deal with matters of current public policy, such as the Ministerial ads.
At that time, the BA had taken harsher steps and had actually issued a charge against the four television stations that had broadcast the adverts –PBS, One TV, NET TV and Smash TV.
The stations had been risking a daily fine of €966 had they persisting in broadcasting the Smart Island adverts.
Eventually, the Ministry had uploaded the prohibited spots on video sharing site You-Tube to enable the electorate to watch the spots nonetheless.
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