Minister for Investment, Industry and Information Technology Dr Austin Gatt accepted the resignation.  

In his letter of resignation, Mr Camilleri said “in my opinion the process was not carried out properly; it was not just, transparent or credible”, adding that it failed the respect the regulations set forward by the Board of Directors in the Public Statement of Intent (PSI).  

The PSI stipulates that the Editorial Board is to evaluate the submitted proposals for programmes in terms of content and present its evaluations to the Board of Directors.  

The PSI adds that together, the Board of Directors will, in conjunction with the Editorial Board, take the final decision about which programmes will form part of the schedule. Mr Camilleri said that “this did not happen”, adding that the actions of the Board of Directors, are in his opinion, none other than “abuse of power”.

Although the former Editorial Board Chairperson pointed out that he agrees that the PBS does not operate at a loss, he added that that “it is wrong to use the excuse of making a 'profit' to bend the rules.”  

In his reply to Mr Camilleri, Minster Gatt said that the Editorial Board’s role is mainly a consultative one. With regards to the selection of programmes, he said that “I have clearly stated that the government's policy is clear - the final decision lies in the hands of the Board of Directors. The role of the Editorial Board is consultative and no amount of nitpicking of PBS documents can lead to another interpretation.”  

Minister Gatt added that “It is a shame that the Editorial Board never wished to respect this simple rule and expects that the final decision either rests in its hands or is taken in agreement with it.”  

The Minister also said that the Editorial Board was mainly set up to ensure that the news of the national station would no longer remain at the centre of accusations of political bias.  Dr Gatt also said that the controversy about the choice of  PBS disguised the role for which the Editorial Board was set up in the first place.  

“I cannot help but recall that up to four years ago, nobody really cared about the PBS programmes, save for a person or two, and yet everyone was ready to fire cannons at the 2000CEST news with allegations of favouritism and discrimination,” continued Dr Gatt, pointing out that “the independence of the Editorial Board was granted over news related programmes led to accusations of partisan news to disappear over the past three years.”