Alternattiva Demokratika yesterday accused the Broadcasting Authority of being a mere mouthpiece of the Nationalist and Labour parties, insisting that it should represent the whole of society.

Addressing a news conference in front of the broadcasting watchdog’s offices in Guardamangia, AD chairman Michael Briguglio said: “The Broadcasting Authority should not be made up of people appointed by political parties but of people who truly represent civil society including minority groups.”

He said board members should be appointed by a Parliamentary Committee after a public call for applications.

AD is also proposing that the Public Broadcasting Services board of directors should not be made up of “people chosen by the minister” but should be impartial, qualified and competent, “including experts in communication and marketing”.

He insisted that AD was being discriminated against even by the State broadcaster.

“We’re being relegated to a sofa and given three minutes to make our comment,” he said.

AD was not even being invited on programmes that discussed topics the Green party had long been campaigning vociferously about, such as the environment and land use policy issues.

“Even candidates of other parties are telling us they think this is an injustice,” he said.

AD deputy chairman Carmel Cacopardo said that even though the two big parties had their own private stations, they still wanted to monopolise State television.

During this electoral campaign, AD’s access to airtime on public broadcasting had been very limited, he complained.

Mr Cacopardo filed a judicial protest against PBS arguing that AD was not invited to a single programme on TVAM last week. Another protest was filed against NET TV who, AD said, had not invited it on any primetime programme last week, insisting that this violated the broadcasting regulator’s guidelines.