BA: PL had no right to give its airtime to Franco Debono

The Broadcasting Authority said this afternoon that the Labour Party yesterday had no right to give up its time on Xarabank to Franco Debono. In a statement after an urgent meeting, the BA said that when, some weeks ago, it said that the political parties had a right to nominate their representatives, it had not foreseen the possibility that a party may appoint a person who did not actually represent the party. In this case, the PL had no right to give its time to (Nationalist MP) Dr Debono, and it should have respected the agreement. In the absence of PL deputy leader Anglu Farrugia, PBS had every right to continue the programme with Dr Busuttil only. But once PBS decided not to hold the programme, an alternative should have been broadcast. The BA said PBS had a right and a duty to inform the people why the scheduled programme was not transmitted.  However PBS was wrong to have broadcast a long programme where only one side was heard. Holding a programme with the participation only of the presenter exceeded all limits of explanation. The BA said all the stations which discussed the issue yesterday failed to provide a proper service to their viewers. It said it would not tolerate...