The Standards Commissioner wants guidelines about paid government adverts enshrined in law.

In a letter to parliament's standards committee, dated July 18 and made public on Friday, commissioner Joseph Azzopardi argued that committee members had set a precedent in opting to ignore two separate reports which found ministers guilty of ethical breaches concerning advertising.

"The committee has created a situation where it cannot take action against such breaches. This situation must be resolved with urgency," the commissioner said.

He recommended that guidelines concerning advertising should be "recast as rules and incorporated in the ministerial code of ethics".

“This will give the guidelines a legal basis and eliminate any doubts about their validity," he said.

The committee began discussing Azzopardi’s recommendation on Thursday. It has yet to decide on it, though the commissioner said Speaker Anġlu Farrugia, who sits on the committee, is in favour of making guidelines law. 

A two-year saga

The recommendation by Standards Commissioner Azzopardi comes two years after his predecessor, George Hyzler, had found that a €7,000 government advert campaign featuring then-minister Carmelo Abela was solely intended to boost Abela's image.

Hyzler had referred the case to parliament’s Standing Committee on Standards in Public Life. 

However, the committee could not agree on the case, with government members voting against disciplining Abela. 

The Speaker - as chair of the committee - had abstained, arguing that the ministerial code of ethics lacked clarity on government advertisements.

As a result, that same year - in August of 2021 - Hyzler issued a set of guidelines concerning government advertisements.

The guidelines sought to regulate paid adverts by the government, including opinion pieces, features or video clips that form part of a paid package featured in the media. Among others, Hyzler had said such adverts should not feature ministers' names or photos. 

Despite the guidelines, breaches continued: in June of last year, Hyzler referred a new case to the committee, this time concerning adverts published by the government in a supplement of Labour-owned newspaper KullĦadd.

On the basis of the guidelines, the commissioner concluded that the advertisements represented a breach of ethics.

A few months later - in November - Speaker Anglu Farrugia said the guidelines should be enshrined in law. However, Farrugia went on to vote against the report that found 18 ministers in breach of ethical standards in the KullĦadd advertisements.

He justified that decision by saying that the guidelines issued by Hyzler had no legal standing.