The law in strange days

Hangman wanted

There has been a follow-up to the recent unfortunate passage of a seriously undesirable law which mandated the death penalty to Palestinians accused of ‘terrorism’. The law does not apply to Jews.

Haaretz, which consistently opposed the bill, reported that Israel’s prison authorities have now issued a call for a sturdy and robust Israel male citizen willing and able to serve as a hangman. He will have to be capable of hanging Palestinians so accused and to look them in the face without flinching.

David Fabri

For the time being, one hangman is deemed sufficient for the task at hand, and the successful candidate is assured of a good salary with benefits. Ladies need not apply.

Without any unintended irony, they are also on the lookout for an Israeli carpenter. His job: to construct the wooden gallows, inclusive of platform, sturdy rope and trapdoor. 

In the meantime, the IDF has continued bombarding southern Lebanon while weird Israeli settlers continue bullying, threatening, attacking and even on occasion killing ordinary Palestinians, Muslim and Christian, lawfully residing in the West Bank, with complete impunity.

The Police and the IDF shield these uncouth rampaging settlers and regularly arrest the victims of the attacks and harass the press. Ethnic cleansing is clearly state-sanctioned and possibly actively encouraged. The ineffectiveness of domestic and international law is truly staggering.

Another strange law from Malta: the EMFA

Readers may have missed, through no fault of theirs, that a European Media Freedom Act (Measures for Implementation) Order, 2025, has been passed and is now law (Legal Notice 175 of 2025). This set of regulations has been adopted in terms of the European Union Act and its main object is to implement an EU Regulation known briefly as EMFA. 

This Order sets up an Office for Advertising and in Media headed inevitably by a ‘Head of the Office’. So yes yet another publicly funded entity to add to the numerous ones already in place, some of which are only partly functional. Appointed for a fixed term of seven years, the candidate for Head must have “past experience (which) shall include that of having held an office established by the Constitution” – rather unusual wording. 

This Head of the Office may investigate, may require the submission of information, and may impose administrative sanctions of up to €10,000 in certain cases.

Regulation 7 seems intended to protect journalistic sources and freedoms, forgetting perhaps that unlike most European countries, we do not have a law clearly defining who is or is not a journalist. The term is not defined in this Order. The Order envisages the possibility of derogations from this general protection, which the media should carefully scrutinise.

Regulation 13 also envisages the appointment of a ‘Chief Executive Officer of the provider of public service media’, who shall be appointed following a competitive process. To complicate things further, certain monitoring duties required by the EMFA Regulation are being assigned to the Broadcasting Authority, which is being assigned certain regulatory and administrative powers.

Regulation 19 warrants examination. It requires public authorities and entities to submit six monthly reports to the Office detailing whatever state advertising contracts they have transacted out of public funds, disclosing the identity of the media provider, the value of the contract and a description of the advertising services provided.

The new Office is tasked with monitoring ‘state advertising expenditure’ and how it is being allocated.

Are public entities actually aware of this regulation and are they in compliance? Have media companies re-examined their legal position in the light of this new measure? A strange silence has accompanied the adoption of this new measure. One suspects that it might prove as useful as the failed whistle-blowers legislation, to mention just one example.

To conclude this very brief review, and for the sake of completeness, may I just clarify that this new Uffiċju għar-Riklamar u l-Media was set up in August 2025 and that the 2024 EU Regulation in question sought to somehow set out a common framework for the internal market for media services.

Annual Company Law Conference 2026

Turning now to a bit of normality, the Malta Law Academy (part of the Chamber of Advocates) will be organising its annual conference which as usual shall focus on developments, challenges and possible reforms in the realm of company law.

Now in its twenty-second edition, the conference brings together leading practitioners, academics and other professionals, experts in corporate governance and business to engage in friendly debate and controversies.

The conference will once again be held in the excellent facilities available at the University’s Valletta Campus on Wednesday 25 November 2026 between 12.30 and 5pm.

Last year’s conference was a particular one as it commemorated the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Companies Act of Malta, the law that regulates the most important form of doing business in these islands.

David Fabri LL.D., PhD has taught law at the University of Malta since 1994. He has authored many papers and articles and recently published a three-volume set of Studies in Maltese Regulation, covering respectively financial services, company law and consumer protection (MidSea Books)