Split MEP candidates’ air time equally, Cassola urges Broadcasting Authority

Arnold Cassola has urged the Broadcasting Authority to split in an equal fashion the air time given to all European Parliament candidates for the May elections.

In a letter sent to BA chairman Martin Micallef, the independent prospective Europarliamentarian said he hoped that there would be no repetition of the “indecency” carried out by the Authority during the last general election, when he said it had denied smaller political parties the possibility of debating the two main parties, whose representatives are the only ones with a place on the BA board.

Cassola, who earlier this month resigned from Alternattiva Demokratika - a party he had been a former leader and long-time member of - suggested that, during the upcoming electoral campaign, the time dedicated to the elections on the state broadcasting, as well as on NET and ONE, be divided “proportionately and in an equal manner between all candidates”.

“To date, we know that there are 14 PL candidates, 10 PN ones, two AD and three PD ones. Let us say that there will be two from Moviment Patrijotti Maltin, and 10 independent candidates. This would mean a total of 41 candidates,” he said, “I am asking that all the time dedicated to debates, spots and political current affairs programmes (TVAM, Xarabank, XTRA, etc., and all those on NET and ONE) is divided equally between the 41 candidates.”

“This would not only be a just way of practising transparency and democracy in a civilised country, but would also constitute tangible proof of the fact that the Broadcasting Authority is not there to cater only for the interests of PN and PL, as per perception,” Cassola added.