The Institute of Maltese Journalists on Tuesday appealed to the authorities to take immediate and concrete action regarding intimation and attacks on journalists on social media and directly, in relation to their work.

In a statement, the institute appealed for concrete action for the situation not to worsen.

It also said it had received a complaint from Labour presenter Karl Stagno Navarra who said he felt intimidated by Nationalist MPs Beppe Fenech Adami and Karol Aquilina while he was outside Parliament to take comments. 

Stagno Navarra has claimed that Aquilina hindered the police in their work while they were escorting a foreign diplomat a year and a half ago and asked the Standards Commissioner to investigate Aquilina.

In a statement, Aquilina denied he disobeyed police orders, breached traffic regulations, put an officer’s life in danger, drove carelessly and invoked parliamentary privilege.

Stagno Navarra said the MPs called him names and attacked him personally with lies and insinuations.

The institute said that while it will not go into what Fenech Adami and Aquilina said, which statements were on record in audio-visual clips it had received, it condemned all kinds of personal attacks by the MPs aimed at intimidating journalists while carrying out their duty.

No MP or public official should answer any question with an attack. On the other hand, they had the right not to reply or to say they were not in a position to reply at that particular time if that was the case.