Environmental organisations in Spain on Monday condemned a decision by the environment ministry to censor a television documentary on the construction of illegal housing on the Mediterranean.

The programme -- to be aired on TVE public television -- shows "an infinite number of ecological disasters caused by the actions or failures of various administrations and which led to the creation of an artificial and devastated coastal landscape," Ecologists in Action said.

The newspaper El Pais said the programme referred to the involvement of local officials and companies in "illegal activities and corruption" in the construction of housing along the Mediterranean coast.

It said the ministry acknowledged that it requested the cutting of "two minutes" of the programme that alleged that the situation "is the result of poor urban planning" and over-building.

Ecologists in Action condemned the "unacceptable" decision as "censorship," and together with Greenpeace it called for the full version of the programme to be broadcast.

No date has been set for the broadcast of the documentary.

Much of Spain's Mediterranean coast which has been defaced by frenetic construction of holiday and retirement homes that once attracted foreign buyers eager for a low-cost "place in sun."

A study released in late 2008 said around 27.5 percent of Spain's Mediterranean coast is now under concrete -- up from 16 percent in 1987.