Times of Malta journalists scooped up awards in seven different categories at the Malta Journalism Awards on Saturday night, dominating an award ceremony that returned following a forced two-year hiatus.

Video journalist Karl Andrew Micallef was the night’s biggest star, taking home four awards to go with his two other placements as a runner-up.

The award ceremony, which is organised by the Institute of Maltese Journalists (IĠM), was not held in 2021 and 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Saturday's event therefore honoured work published or broadcast in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

A joint report between Times of Malta and Malta Today that shed light on Malta’s gangland wars won Jacob Borg, Ivan Martin and Matthew Vella the award for the best investigation.

Borg’s expose of how 17 Black profited off an Enemalta wind farm deal was a runner-up in the prestigious category, along with the Passport Papers consortium of media houses that Times of Malta formed a part of.

Borg’s exclusive revealing the owner of secret company Macbridge won him an award for best online journalism, with his colleague Ivan Martin among the runners up for his scoop exposing how former top cop Silvio Valletta holidayed with murder accused Yorgen Fenech.

Jonathan Borg's shot of jellyfish close to swimmers impressed the judges. Photo: Jonathan Borg

 Karl Andrew Micallef and Fiona Galea Debono’s expose of how deckchairs have taken over Comino’s Blue Lagoon earned them an award for the best audiovisual news feature. Micallef was also a runner-up in that category, with his story about a Maltese man in Romania who opened up his hotel to Ukrainian refugees.

Micallef and Mark Laurence Zammit won the award for the best online feature, with their video chronicle of the key moments in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder saga.

The duo were also the winners in the category for the best current affairs audiovisual journalism, for their video explainer of the Marsa Junction scandal.

It was a category that had Micallef’s name all over it: the Times of Malta videographer’s name was also among the runners-up, for his feature with Galea Debono about Comino’s deckchairs and his telling of the story of a woman trapped in her apartment for nine months due to a broken lift.

CPD rescuers pull a family caught in floods in Salini to safety. Jonathan Borg was a finalist for the best news photojournalism with this photo. Photo: Jonathan Borg

Micallef was, again, a runner-up in category for best online feature together with his colleague Claudia Calleja, for their work to interview a friend of Bernice Cassar a few hours after she was murdered.

Photographer Jonathan Borg won the prize for best photojournalism, for a mesmerising photo of jellyfish under the water. Borg was also a runner-up for the best news/current affairs photojournalim, having captured CPD officials working to rescue a family of four trapped in their car in a flooded Salina.

Sarah Carabott and Karl Andrew Micallef won the award for best human story, with their telling of a rape victim’s horrific ordeal of having to deal with the police force. Carabott’s work to tell the story of a child with non-verbal autism earned her a runner-up mention for the best story promoting the rights of people with a disability.

Times of Malta sports journalist Valhmor Camilleri was a runner-up in the best printed sports journalism category, with his article about the Maltese physio behind boxer Anthony Joshua’s success.

There was also runner-up recognition for Mark Laurence Zammit’s expose about the debt trap that food couriers find themselves in and his video documentary about three teenagers accused of being terrorists, and for Jacob Borg for his exclusive about how former prime minister Joseph Muscat was wired thousands of euro by a Swiss firm linked to Vitals Global Healthcare.

Times of Malta’s Claudia Calleja was a runner-up in the race to win an award for the best print feature, for her article which allowed the children of murder victim Catherine Agius to open up, 13 years after their mother’s death. She also shared a runner-up spot with Karl Andrew Micallef for their work to tell the story of a man diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease aged 50.

Daniel Tihn’s review of Maltese film Carmen was a runner-up for the best specialised journalism while Matthew Mirabelli's photo of University of Malta students grabbing falling money earned him a runner-up nod for the best photojournalism. 

Students reach out for banknotes in this photo that earned Matthew Mirabelli a runner-up spot for best photojournalism. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

20 different categories

There were 20 different categories with awards to be won, but judges opted to not award anyone in two of those categories - the Gold Award and best cartoon - saying submissions had not met the required criteria. 

Judges had to sift through a record number of submissions covering journalism that was published in 2020, 2021 and 2022 to determine the winners.

Submissions were judged by two separate panels which operated independent of each other and of the IĠM.

IĠM considers media council idea

In an opening address, IĠM president Matthew Xuereb said the association was seriously thinking about setting up a self-regulatory media council focused on promoting journalism ethics, and which citizens could turn to when they felt that a journalist acted unethically towards them.

“I think this would be a good step to help restore some of people’s faith in journalism,” he said. 

Xuereb, who also sits on a committee tasked with advising on media reform, also expressed his disappointment with the way the government had ignored some of the committee's most salient proposals.

But he also criticised his own sector for its failure to present constructive legal proposals to how to reform the sector. 

"Journalists need to take an interest in what is happening," he said. 

The IĠM president also called for a mature debate on how to implement some form of transparent state funding for independent media, noting that financial difficulties were making a career in journalism an increasingly precarious one. 

"Laws protecting journalism are very good, but it's useless to have a perfect legal framework, if the patient then dies," he said.