Make media reforms a priority, international NGOs tell Malta government
European Commission urged to critically assess Malta’s inaction on media reforms
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) and several international press freedom and journalist organisations have called on the Maltese authorities to make long-overdue media reforms an immediate priority, and to commit to meaningful and transparent collaboration with national and international civil society.
The assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 generated significant pressure to improve working conditions for journalists, the organisations said.
A 2021 public inquiry found the state had to “shoulder responsibility” because it had created an “atmosphere of impunity” and failed to take reasonable steps to protect her.
A 'Protection of the Media and Journalists' Bill has been languishing on parliament's agenda since October 2022, awaiting second reading debate after running into criticism by media.
The international media organisations recalled that on 15 October last year, they proposed the setting up of a National Action Plan on Media Freedom and Journalist Safety, and provided a broad set of recommendations aimed at building an enabling environment for all journalists in Malta.
Six months after the submission, the authorities stated that they were examining the recommendations.
In its 2025 Rule of Law report, the European Commission found that Malta had made “no progress in adopting legislative and other safeguards to improve the working environment of journalists and limited progress on access to official documents, taking into account European standards on the protection of journalists and on access to official documents”.
The organisations said they were therefore calling on the European Commission to critically assess Malta’s inaction on media reforms, and to consider their recommendations as benchmarks for the next Rule of Law report on Malta.
"While the government issued a legal notice shortly after EMFA entered into full force in August 2025, which outlined its intent to align Maltese laws with the regulation – including on media ownership transparency, state advertising, and public service media governance – little concrete progress has been made and the status of these reforms is unclear. If implemented in their current form, these changes would only represent a partial implementation of EMFA," the organisations said.
In addition to the recent transposition of the EU anti-SLAPP Directive, the authorities in Malta should also undertake further legislative reforms to meet the standards set by the Council of Europe anti-SLAPP Recommendation and extend judicial protection to domestic SLAPPs cases, as well as cross-border cases.
They called on the Council of Europe and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media to offer their full support and expertise to plan and implement future reforms.
The statement was signed by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the International Press Institute (IPI).