Allowing MEP candidates for May’s European elections to purchase radio slots to promote themselves was unconstitutional and would favour the two major political parties in Malta, Partit Demokratiku said on Wednesday.

Party leader Godfrey Farrugia said in a statement that major parties were in a position to dominate radio through sheer purchasing power, violating Article 119 of the Constitution.

The article states that: “It shall be the function of the Broadcasting Authority to ensure that, so far as possible, in such sound and television broadcasting services as may be provided in Malta, due impartiality is preserved in respect of matters of political or industrial controversy or relating to current public policy and that broadcasting facilities and time are fairly apportioned between persons belonging to different political parties."

PD noted that the Broadcasting Authority lacked a true independent function that an impartial institution merited.

This needed to be redressed, the party said. The current appointment of Broadcasting Authority members was not made in the public interest but in the interest of the two major political parties. It was unfortunate that the Broadcasting Authority in Malta had been rendered a political bi-partisan institution, PD said.