BA decision ‘dangerous precedent for Maltese media’ – RTK103

The church radio station said the decision of issuing a fine for using the term ‘racist’ in Lowell’s regard was “illogical”.

It highlighted that the far-right leader, convicted by the Maltese courts of inciting racial hatred, is on record describing himself as a ‘racialist’.

“By any dictionary definition” this term simply means ‘racist’, RTK103 said in its reaction on Wednesday evening.

“It was for these reasons that Andrew Azzopardi used the term racist. The term was not used frivolously or as an insult, but on the basis of incontrovertible evidence. It is therefore a fair and accurate description.”

The radio station observed that the BA’s ruling was a threat to freedom of expression because Azzopardi had expressed an opinion based on facts.

This was aggravated by the fact that the “potential breach” of not giving airtime to Norman Lowell was on a hypothetical scenario which did not take place.

“Such an approach sets a dangerous precedent for the Maltese media”, the church radio station said.

The broadcasting watchdog’s decision was “indirectly defending a person who was criminally convicted by the Courts for inciting racial hatred, by stating that the station ought to give him airtime to broadcast his racist views”, RTK103 said.

“Ironically, when that has happened in the past, the same Authority fined the station involved (TVM in 2010 and FLiving in 2019) for doing so”, it reminded.

“We have always maintained that racism has no place in the media and will continue to maintain our stand”, the church station said.

RTK103 and Andrew Azzopardi have launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the programme and the station to consider further legal action.