A court has ruled that the Nationalist Party is justified in refusing to remove its billboards following a sudden change in regulations. 

The ruling found in favour of the PN's warrant of prohibitory injunction not to have its billboards removed. 

It means that the PN can now proceed to challenge the regulatory changes in court without risking having its 20 billboards removed. Nevertheless, a party spokesman told the Times of Malta yesterday that it would be removing its billboard in St James' ditch, Valletta, regardless of the court ruling. 

Changes to billboard regulations introduced last month made billboards considerably more costly, as they introduced an annual fee of €1,500. 

The PN said that the charges would run up to around €30,000, effectively muzzling it and stifling its freedom of expression. 

Business owners have also come out against the changes in regulations, with the GRTU and Chamber of Commerce both saying they opposed the way rules had been altered.

Authorities had argued that the changes were a means of addressing the existing free-for-all which had been allowed to develop. 

In her ruling, Madam Justice Jacqueline Padovani Grima found that the legal elements for the issue of a warrant of prohibitory injunction were proven. She made it clear that the court was not expressing an opinion on the billboards' legality or whether they constituted political billboards in terms of the new law.

The issue in this case was the right of the PN, as a political party and as the opposition, to broadcast its political message and whether the provisions of the new law interfered with this right, the court said. 

The PN now has 30 days to file a court case challenging the regulation changes.