PBS asks court to hear PN’s Budget case with urgency

The Public Broadcasting Services have filed an urgent request in court so the Nationalist Party’s objection to Budget spots on the national broadcaster can be heard urgently.

The PBS’ request states that such spots have been broadcast for decades under both Nationalist and Labour administrations.

PBS stated that, as long as these spots do not breach broadcasting laws, it has consistently aired spots commissioned by the Government.

On Monday, Madam Justice Miriam Hayman provisionally upheld a Nationalist Party request to stop PBS from broadcasting Budget ads which the PN insists are constitutionally illegal.

The court ordered the Broadcasting Authority to ensure that the national broadcaster does not broadcast any ads which, under the BA Act, would be of a partisan political nature, in accordance with its obligations under the law.

But on Thursday, the PN filed a legal protest against PBS alleging a breach of a court order that prohibits the broadcasting of politically partisan advert on the Budget 2025.

On Friday evening, the PBS said there is a distinction between spots aired in the context of an electoral campaign, where the Broadcasting Authority schedules and monitors their content, “and spots aired to provide informative content on fiscal and social measures announced annually in the Government's Budget speech.”

Following the spot on 27 October, PBS received two additional spots from the Government.

“After an internal editorial review, it was confirmed that these spots did not breach the provisions of Article 119 of the Constitution,” it said. “However, the Nationalist Party appears to have objected to these two spots as well, despite the fact that the party itself broadcast at least one of them on its own media channels.”

PBS argued that disproportionate interference in the operations of the public broadcaster could cause prejudice by hindering stations from delivering timely informative content on subjects of national interest—in this case, the Budget measures.