We are in the second week of the election campaign, with the two major political parties upping the tempo as we head towards the day the collective decision will be made.

All media houses are in full swing and in spite of having limited resources they are offering their readers a widespread coverage of what is going on.

The party political stations, as expected, are trying their hardest to portray “their” side as best they can, while denigrating the “other” side of the spectrum. It is said that they balance each other out, and it is clear that they target the grassroots.

Others who happen to tune in do not like the blatant propaganda. These stations think they can convince the neutral voter in this way, but very often it backfires.

The bigger focus is on PBS which, as a national station sustained by taxpayer money, should be giving a balanced view of the situation.

This is, however, not happening.

PBS has turned into a publicity machine for the government, and it seems that with the election campaign starting, matters have worsened.

Even the war in Ukraine, which has grabbed media attention worldwide, is being pushed aside for PBS to give as much backing as possible to the government of the day. The invasion of a sovereign country by another comes second to what Prime Minister Robert Abela says.

The Nationalist Party has often complained in this legislature that it is not being treated fairly. It ended up filing a court case in the hope that things will change. But it waited too long, and it is clear that the election will be over before a judgment is given. The PN should have submitted its case a long time ago.

That the national station has always been a subject of controversy is a fact. When the PN was in government, it was the Labour Party which complained of imbalance. But it must be said that the situation has never been this bad.

Before the campaign started, the 8pm news bulletin – which is the most followed programme across the board – was a notice board for the government. Ministers elbowed each other for space and they did not like it if a colleague was given an extra 30 seconds of publicity. What the PN did was often left to the last part of the news service, when people would be switching to other channels.

Now that the campaign has started, PBS tries to give the impression that it is treating the two main parties equally, but the keener eye notices otherwise.

Apart from this, while current affairs programmes continue to be slanted in favour of the government, even the so-called magazine programmes are subtly passing on the message that all is well under Labour.

It is hard, if not impossible, to find a solution for this. The party in government will always have an advantage over the party in opposition, when it comes to coverage from PBS.

What’s worse this time is that it is so much “in your face”.