The Labour Party's spokesman on broadcasting, Gino Cauchi, has called on the Broadcasting Authority to ensure that PBS, as the state broadcaster, observes political impartiality and balance in its broadcasts.

He said he has also written to the chairman of PBS, with the same request.

In a statement, Mr Cauchi, himself a former member of the PBS newsroom, noted that replies to parliamentary questions showed that between 2008 and 2010 the prime minister and leader of the Nationalist Party featured on the PBS news 490 times. The leader of the opposition featured 265 times.  Ministers, parliamentary secretaries and parliamentary assistants featured  1,171 times while the Labour parliamentary group featured 220 times.

Mr Cauchi said PBS had carried 156 interviews with the prime minister compared to 34 with the leader of the opposition. There were 365 interviews with ministers, parliamentary secretaries and parliamentary assistants and 24 with members of the Labour parliamentary groups.

This, he said, showed a subtle and calculated imbalance against the PL.  Journalistic practice abroad was that broadcasters sought the views of the opposition to accompany what was said by members of the government, Mr Cauchi said.

Now that the general elections were approaching, it was clear, he said, that there was a plan so that the state broadcaster would be used as a propaganda tool of the Nationalist party.

He urged the Broadcasting Authority to be proactive, rather than await complaints before taking action.