SINN Fein says it will mount a High Court challenge in Belfast this morning to prevent what it says is censorship of its political broadcasts by the BBC.
The party president, Mr Gerry Adams, accused the BBC of "bowing to a unionist agenda" in banning an election video which was to have been broadcast this evening.
He said the station objected to sequences in the video featuring the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, at Drumcree and the Rev William McCrea of the DUP sharing a platform with the Portadown loyalist, Mr Billy Wright. The BBC wanted these sequences removed from the broadcasts, he claimed.
The SDLP, meanwhile, attacked Mr Adams's campaign in West Belfast, saying Sinn Fein's latest advertisements in the local press confirmed the "double crisis of confidence now crippling their campaign."
The party suggested that, by invoking Mr John Hume's name and photograph in his election leaflets and erasing any references to his own party in advertisements, Mr Adams was both "divorcing himself from Sinn Fein and marrying himself to John Hume to seek election.
"In doing so, Sinn Fein's absentee candidate tries to hide from what the IRA and republicans have been doing over the last year and hopes that Hume's credibility attaches to him. No chance."
The SDLP's West Belfast candidate, Dr Joe Hendron, announced yesterday that he had secured a pledge from the shadow Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, to review the decision to close the Royal Maternity Hospital.
"This is a very positive and encouraging pledge from the woman who will be the next Northern Secretary of State," he said.
The SDLP headquarters claims it has received reports that elderly people were being approached and asked to hand over their postal votes.
The party general secretary, Mr Gerry Cosgrove, said many elderly people had been "very frightened" by the demands. He urged those with postal votes to give them only to people they trusted to post them on their behalf.
