Press Club welcomes new MLP media policy

The council of the Malta Press Club welcomed the decision by the Malta Labour Party parliamentary group and its national executive "not to leave any void in its participation in the media; not even on national broadcasting".

The Press Club said it interpreted this as an end to MLP boycotts - the MLP has been boycotting Where's Everybody and Bondi + programmes.

The Press Club said it wanted a new chapter to be opened in relations between the parties, media owners and journalists as this was to everyone's benefit: the consumer who wanted to hear everyone's version of events and the parties themselves.

The Press Club reiterated that boycotts, although legitimate and acceptable, should not be resorted to as an easy solution but only when all other avenues had been exhausted.

"Now that a new avenue is being opened, the Press Club can reveal that in the past few months it was in contact and held meetings with the MLP so that its relations with all of the media will be normalised," TMPC said.

During these contacts and meetings, the Labour Party expressed the wish that journalists and media that are not of the same political belief be more just in their attitude towards the MLP.

The Times says: Perhaps the Labour Party should set its own house in order - a letter the party sent to former Labour leader Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, which the Labour Party said it was also sending to the media, on Wednesday found its way only to Labour's ideological soul mate, l-Orizzont, which published it yesterday. The Times received a faxed copy of it only yesterday afternoon, after five.