Civil society group Repubblika is calling for an independent communications committee that would oversee public entities’ spending on advertising while recommending that ministers who persistently breach guidelines should resign. 

The committee, which would provide advice on campaigns that cost more than €14,000, would be chaired by the Finance Ministry’s permanent secretary. It would include the director of information and representatives of the Istitut tal-Ġurnalisti Maltin, leader of the opposition, and culture minister.

The proposal forms part of a set of guidelines that Repubblika said it had drafted to “help facilitate the process and avoid any further waste of public money”.

Standards Commissioner George Hyzler recently ruled that adverts featuring Carmelo Abela published in print media last year did not provide “information of value” to the public and were intended to boost the minister’s image. 

Speaker Anglu Farrugia then abstained from casting a deciding vote on the reports’ conclusions, in an unprecedented move that stalled the adoption of the document.

Abela had defended the adverts, saying he was obliged to inform the public of his work.  

On Thursday, Repubblika said that despite calls for procedures guiding ministers and public entities about advertising expenditure, it had seen “no evidence of urgency in adopting such rules”. 

Meanwhile, people’s letterboxes were being stuffed by personal publicity of ministers “evidently paid for by taxpayers through the ministry’s budget”, it said.

And expenditure in the media, particularly print, “on a discretionary and discriminatory basis is rampant”, it added.

Its drafted guidelines were based on widely available international models, including those drawn by the governments in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Repubblika said it had also reviewed rulings of the European Court of Human Rights and recommendations by the Organisation of American States.

Other recommendations:

• Campaigns must not mention political parties by name;
• Campaigns must not attack or scorn the views, policies or actions of opposition parties, civil society organisations, or other groups;
• The government must be projected equally in both official languages;
• The finance minister will, on a quarterly basis, provide parliament with detailed expenditure reports on advertising campaigns approved by the committee;
• Pre-existing policies, products, services and activities should not be presented as new;
• Distribution of unsolicited material should be carefully controlled and must exclude any images of politicians;
• All payments made by the government or public entities to organisations owning or controlling the media should be non-discriminatory, after consultation with the committee. They should also be reported transparently on the committee’s website;
• Ministers subject to disciplinary action would be expected to resign.