The Nationalist Party has requested the Broadcasting Authority for an urgent decision on a complaint it filed today about tomorrow’s TVM programme Dissett.

Earlier, the party accused PBS of adhering to the whims of the Labour Party by not inviting its deputy leader Simon Busuttil to a debate with his PL counterpart Louis Grech on tomorrow’s Dissett.

It said that while Mr Grech was invited for the programme, Dr Busuttil was only asked to give a recorded comment. This put the PN at an unfair disadvantage.

The party said that for the December 8 edition of the programme, both Dr Busuttil and deputy leader Toni Abela had been invited. Both accepted the invitation but Dr Abela did not turn up.

But in his reply, PBS head of news Natalino Fenech told the PN that the deputy leaders' debate was scheduled for January 11 on Xarabank.

The Broadcasting Act, he said, permitted for balance to be reached over a number of programmes and the fact that Dr Abela had not turned up for the programme with Dr Busuttil did not mean that Dr Busuttil had to be invited for tomorrow's programme with Mr Grech.

Dr Busuttil, Dr Fenech said, would be invited for a programme on his own at a later stage.

But the PN later insisted that PBS’ decision was unjust with the PN because while when Dr Busuttil was elected deputy leader, Dissett had invited Dr Abela to be present live in the studio, it did not do the same with Dr Busuttil now that the PL had a newly elected deputy leader.