The responsibilities of the Malta Song Board will now be handed over to the PBS, the Maltese national broadcaster, as a new Board of Directors, headed by Dr. Clare Thake Vassallo has been appointed.Dr. Vassallo, who has already served on the Board for several years, is a senior lecturer at the Department of Translation and Interpretation within the Faculty of Arts.
She joined the Board in the year 2000, where she served for four years, after joining again in 2005 and was in charge of the restructuring of children’s programs on TVM.
Other members of the board include Joseph Bonello, Lara Tonna, Josef N. Grech and Isabelle Gatt.
Meanwhile, it was also announced, that the Malta Song Board will not be re-appointed.
Instead, the Board’s responsibility will fall under the remit of the PBS.
During PBS' talk show, DISSETT aired yesterday, it was revealed that PBS forks out around 94,000 Euros annually for the participation of Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest. Over 78,000 Euros are paid by PBS to the EBU as participation fee, while over 15,000 Euros are spent in the organisation of the Malta Song for Europe – Malta's national final.
On the other hand, Mr Robert Abela, former chairperson of the Malta Song Board revealed that the board spent around 90,000 Euros for the preparation of the Maltese Eurovision entry, financially backed by the Ministry of Culture and other sponsorships.
This sums up to over 180,000 Euros.
Hon. Mrs Dolores Cristina is the newly appointed Minister of Education and Culture, under whose responsability falls the running of the Public Broadcasting Services (PBS).
The PBS board at its first meeting will discuss the creation of a structure within PBS to assume the functions of the MaltaSong board.
It is common practice in many European countries for the selection of their representative to the Eurovision Song Contest to be made through a contest organised by the national broadcaster.
