The PN is calling on the government to withdraw three draft laws on media reform and instead publish a white paper clearly indicating how it will ensure media protection.
The party said in a statement that the decision by Prime Minister Robert Abela and Justice Minister Jonathan Attard to "withhold" a report by the Committee of Media Experts for more than two and a half months confirmed the government still considered journalists its enemy.
The government, it said, was obliged to hold a wide and effective public consultation before proceeding with the legislative process.
Work to reform local media laws began in January 2022, when the government announced that it had appointed an eight-person committee to assess local laws and advise on how they could be improved.
That process was one of the recommendations made by a public inquiry into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed in 2017.
The government received feedback from the committee one year ago. But instead of making the committee’s report public, it unveiled three bills which it said were based on the committee’s feedback.
An outcry ensued, with journalists and editors noting that they had not been given any opportunity to provide their input.
Having initially defended the process, the prime minister eventually agreed to freeze the bills, to allow the media experts committee to consult the broader media sector.
The committee eventually submitted its final report to the government in July, but the document was not made public.
The government said it was bound with the terms of reference which state that this has to be tabled in Parliament.
In September some 90 local journalists, columnists, researchers, and activists urged Abela to open proposals to reform Maltese media laws to public consultation.
Then last week, the council of the Institute of Maltese Journalists said it will publish the report in its entirety unless this was tabled in Parliament by the government on Monday.
On Monday morning, the PN said that once the government publishes the report, it will present a motion to establish a select committee to launch a public consultation over the matter.
In its statement, the PN said it expected the government and parliament to remain open to public consultation at every stage and to encourage everyone to participate.
The PN welcomed the Media Reform Initiative’s proposal that parliament should establish a parliamentary select committee to listen to all those interested in the media.