St James' Hospital is calling upon the Court to order the Broadcasting Authority to revoke a decision not to allow the hospital to advertise the price of its cataract operations.

In a judicial protest against the Authority, St James said it had been advertising its cataract operations at a fixed reduced price on broadcasting media. The advert included the price.

But last Friday, the Authority's head of programme monitoring requesting the broadcasters to stop the adverts saying they were not in line with regulations.

The said regulation, the hospital said, "prohibited references to a prize, competition or similar scheme in the advertising of medical or cosmetic treatments".

St James claimed it was clear that the intention behind the regulation was to prohibit the award of medical and cosmetic services as prizes. So the Maltese translation of prize to prezz (price) did not make sense.

Moreover, it was in the interest of consumers to know the full cost of treatments being advertised so the authority's decision went against the interest of consumers.

St James is holding the BA responsible for damages.