A cruel war is raging here in Europe, but it seems that our state broadcaster tries to keep that a bit away from you
TVM News lacks extensive Ukraine news coverage
Breaking news, schedule changes, special broadcasts, overtime, double shifts, cancelled leave – this is the current reality in television newsrooms across Europe.
While many stations have to deal with ongoing Corona and upcoming elections, they still manage to dedicate 50% or more of their primetime news to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
For reasons PBS does not want to explain to you, the heads of TVM’s evening news programme have chosen a rather minimalistic approach.
Between 1st and 7th March, the state broadcaster’s newsroom decided to gradually shift away Ukraine reports from the beginning of its programme.
By March 7th, the already short coverage of only 5-6 minutes was further cut down to just two and a half minutes.
On Friday, the day Russian troops attacked and occupied Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, a report about Miriam Dalli on a company visit came first.
Putting the energy minister looking at public investments in the Lamb Brand first, triggered some criticism on social media.
On Sunday and Monday evening, the motto of the first 20 minutes appeared to be “Don’t mention the war”, as the Russian invasion just 1,700km away from our shores was treated like further foreign affairs.
Ukraine was only brought back towards the beginning of the programme on Tuesday, after Bonġu requested a comment on editorial decisions.
It remains unanswered why the only local TV station financially capable to report extensively on Ukraine has chosen not to do so.
That’s how you keep the electorate quite uninformed.
An uninformed electorate, which tends not to follow foreign media reports regularly either, leaves those in power to choose when and how to explain the impact of international events on Malta.
