Lovin Malta has filed constitutional action aimed at annulling a Broadcasting Act provision that allows political party stations to bypass the principle of impartiality.
That legislation, introduced in 1991, had been debated in Parliament and amended to allow the broadcasting watchdog to “close an eye” on the manner of operation of party-owned stations, whose sole purpose was to deliver a “partisan message” that essentially could not be impartial, according to the applicants.
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Although in terms of the Constitution, the BA is tasked with ensuring impartiality in matters of political or industrial controversy, or issues relating to current public policy, the proviso to Article 13 of the Broadcasting Act allowed the authority to consider the general output of programmes “together as a whole.” At the time, the government of the day had argued that party-owned transmissions would eventually balance each other out.