MLP protests against omission of its spots by PBS

The Labour Party is calling for an urgent meeting with the Broadcasting Authority after Public Broadcasting Services failed to broadcast the MLP's spots on its alternative to EU membership.

In a letter to authority chief executive Kevin Aquilina, party general secretary Jimmy Magro yesterday said PBS's decision flew in the face of the authority's decision to allow the MLP to produce its own spots.

"The MLP believes that the actions of PBS are a sign of abuse of power, irresponsibility and arrogance, and the authority should not remain passive in the light of such an unacceptable decision," Mr Magro said.

"With this decision PBS is continuing to support the Nationalist government. The MLP's constitutional rights are also being infringed through this political and illegal muzzle on the party's views," he said.

Earlier this month, the authority decided to grant the MLP its own spots on PBS after the party asked to counteract the Malta-EU Information Centre's "propaganda" about membership.

Immediately after that decision, the Nationalist Party insisted that its own constitutional rights were being breached and it should have its own spots on EU membership as well.

In the meantime, PBS last Friday filed a writ in the Civil Court claiming that the authority's decision was in violation of its rights.

PBS said it had been ordered by the authority to allocate broadcasting time to a political matter even though it had reserved the time for adverts.

As a result, PBS was to lose income generated by the limited time it had available for advertising. This obligation had been imposed on PBS without offering compensation or damages for the loss of income suffered.

PBS said that if the PN were to be given the same facilities to broadcast spots on TVM without payment in intervals already reserved by PBS for advertising, then PBS's losses would double.

PBS would sustain even more losses should Alternattiva Demokratika make a similar application and be awarded the same right.

In light of the writ, AD yesterday issued a statement saying that it had already submitted an application to the authority.

AD said that the authority's decision to grant the MLP airtime was a clear imbalance against AD and went against the authority's duty to ensure that a fair balance between political parties existed in broadcasting."