Prime Minister Robert Abela has stood by a reform of journalism legislation 24 hours after the reporters’ lobby called for this to be pulled from parliament.
Taking questions from journalists on Tuesday, Abela defended a recently announced journalism reform and said he would be replying to the Institute of Maltese Journalists (IĠM).
The IĠM has warned the government that it will pull out of the media reform process unless legislation on media protection is opened for consultation.
Last month, Justice Minister Jonathan Attard unveiled three Bills that will be presented to the House, after receiving feedback from a government-appointed committee to analyse the state of journalism in Malta.
In a letter signed by over 100 editors, journalists, academics, artists and others, Prime Minister Robert Abela was asked “to immediately publish the advice you have already received from the experts whom you appointed and, before you present any legal proposals to Parliament, to publish the government’s intentions for open and effective public consultation”.
On Monday, in a letter to Prime Minister Robert Abela, the IĠM representatives on the government-appointed committee of experts said the proposed legal amendments were not bold enough and fell short of what could have been achieved for the protection of journalists and freedom of expression five years after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.
IĠM president Matthew Xuereb and general secretary Kurt Sansone said they were disappointed that the most salient recommendations made by the committee were ignored or seriously watered down.
Asked on Tuesday whether he would heed the IĠM’s calls, Abela defended the process that had led to the reforms and cast doubts over the criticism.
He said that, until recently, the government was being criticised for not doing enough to implement the necessary reforms that had emerged from the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Now, he said, criticism was being pushed by those who had “entered the Nationalist Party through the back door”.
He did not expand on this point but later said that he felt the criticism was unfair.
Abela shot down criticism that there had been a lack of public consultation, saying that he had personally met with the Caruana Galizia family, together with their lawyer to discuss this, among other matters.