The €1,500 damages awarded to the Nationalist Party will not reverse the harm caused to the party, PN leader Bernard Grech said on Thursday.

The PN leader was speaking at a press conference after Malta’s public broadcaster PBS was found by a judge to have breached the Constitution by failing to impartially report on a matter of political controversy.

Back in February, before the election campaign started, the PN had taken legal action after it felt it was victim of political bias and propaganda on PBS, which is state owned.

The PN, Grech said, knew that it was being discriminated against and the courts of law have now proved it.

Grech said that the judgment issued by the court continues to confirm what the PN has been saying about the PBS and its lack of impartiality when it comes to political news.

“This morning the courts have found the PBS and the Broadcasting Authority, which are two Maltese institutions, guilty of violating the PN’s freedom of speech,” he said.

Grech added that there is no doubt that the detriment suffered by the PN was discriminatory as they were treated differently than the Labour Party in government.

He said that both institutions are there to serve the country in accordance with the constitution, yet “they only catered for the PL’s needs and they weren’t impartial.” Grech added that the ones who are going to suffer mainly are the public as the damages awarded have to be taken out of public funds.

“This continues to confirm the total control the PL holds over these institutions,” he said.

Grech said that the court judgement given also confirms how the party was negatively affected in spreading their message before the election and that for this reason “there is no amount of money to repair such damage”.

The opposition leader thanked MPs David Aguis, general secretary Micheal Piccinino and the party’s lawyers who worked hard on the case.

Grech said that the party now wants immediate action for the situation to be balanced.

“We (the PN) want the Prime minister to respect the court, be factual and recognise and remove his control from the broadcasting authority,” said Grech.

He added that from now one the party expects that PBS journalists are allowed to work without any kind or form of political intrusion.

Grech noted that the court also said that the previous type of remedy offered by PBS was lacking as it came months after the actual damage had already been done.

“The Broadcasting Authority is letting everything pass and is not doing its job properly, which is inscribed in the constitution” he said.

The PN wants the BA to have more funds so that it can do proper monitoring.