Media freedom in Malta faces obstacles and the perception of corruption remains relatively high, a European Commission report said on Wednesday while also raising concerns about the effectiveness of whistleblower legislation.

The EU 2024 Rule of Law report on Malta was drafted after Commission representatives met authorities and stakeholders in Malta in March.

The report examines developments in the justice system, the anti-corruption framework, media pluralism and freedom, and other institutional issues related to checks and balances.

Its conclusions and recommendations show that not much has been achieved over the previous 12 months.  

For instance, there has been no progress on the establishment of a National Human Rights Institution, the report observes.

The Constitutional Convention, announced in 2019 to help address issues concerning the appointment of constitutional bodies and the role of Parliament, remains stalled.

Malta has also made no progress in the implementation of major judgements of the European Court of Human Rights.

Besides, uncertainty persists as to the applicability of judgements of the Constitutional Court, as it is up to Parliament to repeal or amend laws found unconstitutional.

Efforts to establish a supportive regulatory framework for the civil society sector were still ongoing.  

Media Freedom

The report notes that there has been no progress to enhance the independent governance and editorial independence of the public broadcaster.  

There have also been no developments to secure transparent criteria for the allocation of public funding for media outlets or for the allocation of state advertising.  

There has been no progress with regard to adopting safeguards to improve access to official documents.  

Meanwhile, journalists continue to face challenges in the exercise of their profession, the report notes. 

The perceived level of judicial independence in Malta has decreased slightly (66%) in comparison with 2023 (65%) but is higher (57%) when compared with 2020, the report adds. 

However, concerns persist regarding the independence of specialised tribunals although work has started to address the issue.  

The Judiciary

Despite some improvements, the length of judicial proceedings remains a concern, the report says. On an annual basis, the number of resolved cases is less than the number of new ones. 

There has been some progress in the involvement of the judiciary in the procedure for the appointment of the Chief Justice. 

Despite a further increase in the number of members of the judiciary, concerns persist over human resources.

The Digital Justice Strategy 2022-2027 is currently under implementation and, therefore, the digitalisation of the justice system needs further work for implementation.  

The regulation of the activities of lawyers is still under discussion.

Anti-Corruption Framework

The report notes that new tools for whistleblowing are under preparation.  

And yet there is no data on the functioning of the existing mechanism, while there are concerns with regards to its effectiveness.

The perception among experts and business executives is that the level of corruption in the public sector remains relatively high.

The report says Malta’s investor citizenship scheme continues to raise serious concerns.

It criticises the fact that the anti-corruption recommendations issued following the public inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia have not yet been implemented.

Furthermore, the length of investigations remains problematic, and there has been no progress on delivering final judgements on high-level cases of corruption.

On the positive side, human and financial resources allocated to the Permanent Commission Against Corruption have been increased, although the impact on its capacity to achieve tangible results is still to be seen.

Concerns remain regarding the extent of integrity measures applied to persons of trust and the transparent use of public funds by political parties.

Government’s reaction

In a statement, the Ministry of Justice said that the report confirmed the significant improvements that had taken place in Malta over the past year.

It said the report noted the government’s unwavering commitment to strengthen the rule of law in Malta [and] affirmed the government’s active commitment to achieving good governance and its ongoing efforts to maintain an open dialogue with stakeholders and the public, to ensure that the relevant reforms to strengthen the rule of law are addressed comprehensively and effectively.