A court has temporarily upheld a request by the Nationalist Party to stop Transport Malta and the Planning Authority from removing its roadside billboards.

The PN requested the warrant of prohibitory injunction as it protests over a legal notice issued on April 3 which limits political billboards to three months before an election.

Should the parties wish to put up billboards outside that time span they would have to pay a licence of €1,500 per billboard, as in the case of commercial billboards.

Addressing a press conference beside one of the party billboards, PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami said the legal notice effectively muzzled the PN from spreading a political message.

If the party were to retain its current billboards, some 20, it would need to pay more than €30,000 in licence fees, he said.

This legal notice, Dr Fenech Adami said, was issued after the PN had set up a number of billboards about the Panama scandal and the government had reacted in a “fit of panic” by impinging on the party's right to express itself.

He said the PN was facing an uneven playing field since the government was setting up its own billboards with content which could be deemed as being political. The government, however, had access to funds to spread its message which outstripped those held by any political party.

The court is to hear submissions and give a final decision on the PN request on April 25.