Malta’s party stations have come under intense scrutiny in light of Lovin Malta’s legal challenge to declare ONE and NET’s propaganda on TV stations unconstitutional.
This week, we visited Parliament to ask our MPs what they thought of NET and ONE – and their answers are quite telling.
Starting by asking Labour MPs whether they thought NET’s reporting was fair and PN MPs whether they thought ONE’s reporting was fair, Lovin Malta then asked them what their thoughts were about their own party’s station.
Some were confounded by these simple questions, whilst others stopped short of offering a proper stance on the topic.
Watch the MPs’ responses in the vox pop below:
When asked about whether NET News reported fairly, PN Leader Bernard Grech stated: “yes they do, they do and we are making sure that it happens even more often”.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Robert Abela said that “I understand that NET News is a party-owned station and has all the right to share a message of that party. However, it is important they are balanced and that what is reported is factual.”
Abela went on to say that he understands that “every party has the right to get their message across, it’s then up to the people to evaluate – the Labour Party expresses their message, the Nationalist Party expresses their message with their own media and then it’s entirely up to the people to decide.”
PN MP Chris Said noted that “in an ideal situation, it’s better not to have political party stations but we have to arrive at that when we are hundred percent sure that the national television, in this case, TVM […] is truly impartial”.
How do you feel about the MPs’ responses?