MEP Peter Agius calls for PBS CEO to be selected through public, transparent process

MEP Peter Agius Calls for PBS CEO to Be Selected Through Public, Transparent Process

MEP Peter Agius is urging that the next CEO of PBS be chosen transparently through a public call.

“With the general election approaching, where citizens have the right to access full and impartial information, the Government should ensure that the successor to Mark Sammut as the head of PBS is appointed via a public call,” said Agius in response to media reports about Sammut’s resignation.

The European Union’s Media Freedom Act mandates that roles within PBS must be filled through a transparent and public selection process. Media reports indicate that the Executive Chairman of PBS has resigned, presenting an opportunity for the Government to immediately apply the provisions of the Media Freedom Act, which it has supported in Europe, Agius stressed.

While the regulation officially comes into force in August next year, Agius highlighted that “unless the Government intends to appoint a CEO for a few months only, it should start adhering to the principles of the Media Freedom Act now, ensuring that the next CEO is appointed via a public call in a fair and transparent process, as established by European law.”

He added that this would be an important first step toward improving media freedom in the country. He noted that the Government has been slow to implement the recommendations from the Public Inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia regarding the protection of press freedom in Malta.

Note for journalists: 

REGULATION (EU) 2024/1083 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

Establishing a common framework for media services in the internal market and amending Directive 2010/13/EU (European Media Freedom Act)

CHAPTER I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 5

Safeguards for the Independent Functioning of public service media providers

1.   Member States shall ensure that public service media providers are editorially and functionally independent and provide in an impartial manner a plurality of information and opinions to their audiences, in accordance with their public service remit as defined at national level in line with Protocol No 29.

2.   Member States shall ensure that the procedures for the appointment and the dismissal of the head of management or the members of the management board of public service media providers aim to guarantee the independence of public service media providers.

The head of management or the members of the management board of public service media providers shall be appointed on the basis of transparent, open, effective and non-discriminatory procedures and transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate criteria laid down in advance at national level. The duration of their term of office shall be sufficient for the effective independence of public service media providers.

Decisions on dismissal of the head of management or the members of the management board of public service media providers before the end of their term of office shall be duly justified, may be taken only exceptionally where they no longer fulfil the conditions required for the performance of their duties according to criteria laid down in advance at national level, shall be subject to prior notification to the persons concerned and shall include the possibility of judicial review.

3.   Member States shall ensure that funding procedures for public service media providers are based on transparent and objective criteria laid down in advance. Those funding procedures shall guarantee that public service media providers have adequate, sustainable and predictable financial resources corresponding to the fulfilment of and the capacity to develop within their public service remit. Those financial resources shall be such that the editorial independence of public service media providers is safeguarded.

4.   Member States shall designate one or more independent authorities or bodies, or put in place mechanisms free from political influence by governments, to monitor the application of paragraphs 1, 2 and 3. The results of that monitoring shall be made available to the public.

Link to Regulation