A protest by Malta's entertainment industry planned for this Thursday has been temporarily suspended pending further negotiations with the government. 

The Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association had planned the protest in reaction to what it said was discrimination in terms of COVID-19 regulations concerning large-scale events.    

Announcing the decision on Facebook, MEIA said that while it was suspending its protest plans, they would be announcing a new demonstration date if discussions with authorities "fail to address our concerns and if we still feel our industry is being discriminated against and treated unjustly."

The lobby group held a four-hour meeting with authorities on Monday, in an attempt to thrash out an agreement on how to best solve the ongoing crisis. 

It has declined to comment on the outcome of those discussions, saying it would be "premature" to do so as they awaited further feedback from government authorities. 

Artists were planning to hold a demonstration named Daqshekk Siekta (Silent mo more) on Thursday June 24, in St. George's Square Valletta to protest against the current COVID-19 restrictions for their sector. 

Seated large-scale events are slated to resume as of July 5, but event capacities will be capped at 100 people, rising to 200 over four weeks, and only fully vaccinated attendees will be allowed in. 

The MEIA has said that the rules are overly restrictive and make it financially unfeasible to organise most events, and said that the sector's proposals were completely ignored.

It has pointed to reports of large crowds gathering in public and other illegal gatherings as further proof that current measures and their enforcement are discriminatory towards the arts and entertainment industries.