President George Abela augured today that appointments to constitutional posts would be made with consensus, in the same way as his nomination to the presidency.

Speaking during a visit to the offices of the Broadcasting Authority, which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, Dr Abela said he also hoped that the process of discussion on constitutional/democratic reform could be resumed in the committee set up early in this legislature.

Dr Abela underlined the need for fairness and impartiality in broadcasting and said it was important that small groups/political parties which did not own their own media would also have a voice on the airwaves.

The role of the Broadcasting Authority, Dr Abela said, was to ensure that the people could be able to hear all sides of all arguments before making their choices. One needed to discuss whether the constitutional provisions of balance and impartiality were being met through the interpretation of the Broadcasting Act, where balance was sought over the general broadcasting sector and not within individual broadcasting stations - with the implications which this had for political parties which did not own their own stations.

Dr Abela referred to the composition of the Authority and said the process of constitutional change could also discuss whether the composition of the Authority needed to be changed. The board of the Authority is currently headed by a chairman and two members each from the big political parties. This meant, Dr Abela observed, that when the party representatives did not agree, decisions rested only on the chairman.