I’d cheer journalists that feel they need to defy authorities who attempt to punish them for not doctoring their reporting the way the authorities would like them to. But Norma Saliba, who heads the national TV newsroom, is no journalist. She is a propagandist of the Labour Party placed there precisely because she is a propagandist of the Labour Party.

The constitution requires public broadcasting to be fair and impartial and to give its audiences both sides of the coin. Norma Saliba is only interested in giving one side of the coin.

Jason Azzopardi bothered to fight that at the Broadcasting Authority set up by the Constitution to make sure public broadcasting is fair. The Authority, last June, said he was right and ordered PBS to report his side of the story as well. PBS ignored the Authority.

Not one to take rejection lightly, Jason Azzopardi went to the Authority again to complain their June order was ignored by PBS. The Broadcasting Authority again said he had been right. They ordered Norma Saliba to report Jason Azzopardi’s side of the story and increased the fine to be paid by our national station to just shy of €6,000.

As if Norma Saliba cares. She’s not paying €6,000. And since her indifference to the law, to the institutions of the State, and to basic journalistic ethics is as pathological as the indifference of her political masters, she’ll continue to provide her audience with propaganda that would make the Pyongyang choir singing muh tahm lew shane mull pear eat mint off blush with embarrassment.

If no one arrests Konrad Mizzi for bribery, money laundering, and corruption why would Norma Saliba worry about her job for lying systematically to her audience?

Put it in context, won’t you? Jason Azzopardi’s original complaint was because PBS reported Carmelo Abela’s verbal onslaught on the Opposition MP accusing him of all sorts of things. Jason Azzopardi replied and PBS told their audience nothing of what he had said.

You’d think being a loyal Laburista would be enough. But Carmelo Abela likes to keep his puppets close to him. Here he is earlier this week on a trip to Rome to visit the Vatican. For some inexplicable reason, the chief reporter at the national TV station is part of his delegation. They don’t even bother to cover up just how bloody cheap they are.

Because you need to be cheap to do this then. The entire nation, starting of course with the airport operators themselves, is on edge over the absurd arrival procedures at the airport. TVM reports the concern like the Iron Curtain TV that it is: “English Tourists say they did not have to wait for Covid verification”.

There’s nothing in the arsenal of the Broadcasting Authority to ask Norma Saliba to live anywhere near the truth. The truth doesn’t pay lunch in Rome. Carmelo Abela does. And the company pays the regulator’s fines.

Well, actually. You’re paying both lunch and the fines. Who’s laughing now?