The beauty of checks and balances is that they give citizens an alternative to having to trust their rulers blindly. We do not need to accept everything told to us as fact, because we have systems in place allowing us to verify that information. At least in theory.

In practice, it seems the government is all too eager to keep documents financed through our taxes under wraps. Instead of information, we are given a pat on the head and told we should trust the big boys.

Examples abound, but it may be illustrative to focus on two such occasions within the past week.

The government has said that it will present the media reform expert committee’s report immediately once parliament resumes. MPs are due to return to plenary next week, meaning we are now days away from seeing what that report contains. But that is arguably beside the point.

The government has had the report since late July. It has been gathering dust for two months: two months in which it could have been read, assessed, critiqued or perhaps praised. Instead, it has been hidden away while lawmakers enjoy their summer holidays.

There was nothing to stop the government from publishing the report at any point during this two-month period, just as it publishes reports and public consultation documents concerning all sorts of other issues. It could have easily published the committee’s report, let public debate about it simmer for two months, and then officially tabled the report in parliament once legislators were back at their desks.  For some reason known only to itself, it chose not to do so. Was it a political decision? Was it one borne out of pique?

The media reform expert committee’s report has been gathering dust for two months in which it could have been read, assessed, critiqued or perhaps praised. Instead, it has been hidden away while lawmakers enjoy their summer holidays

There is something deeply – and disconcertingly – ironic about a government saying that it wants to strengthen media freedom while at the same time it holds back information about those plans. Are we to trust the government’s words, or its deeds?

Just days after resisting pressure to make the media expert committee’s report public, another part of government got up to a similar trick.

Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo and his loyal sidekick, Film Commissioner Johann Grech, held a glitzy press conference to announce the findings of a much-anticipated economic study into a controversial rebate scheme for the film industry.

Bartolo had promised that the report would “prove” that rebates worked, and judging by the press conference set-up – massive LED screen, camera lights, podium – it looked like they had a home run of a document on their hands. Instead, they barely made it to first base. An economist nervously rattled off figures from an executive summary, and Bartolo and Grech smiled triumphantly.

But when a Times of Malta journalist asked for a copy of the full report, he was told that would not be possible. “Legal advice,” was the best excuse the minister could muster.

Grech was even less loquacious when asked why the Film Commission he leads has filed a court case to avoid having to reveal how much taxpayer money was spent on bringing David Walliams over for the Malta Film Awards.

The awards – like the lavish Mediteranee Film Festival held in June – were organised using people’s taxes. The millions dished out in rebates to blockbuster productions also came from the people’s taxes.

Should the people not have the right to know how much of their money was spent, and on what? And what does Robert Abela make of this ‘trust me bro’ form of government he appears to be cultivating?