Justice Minister tables media reform Bills in parliament, shuns calls for more consultation

Justice Minister Jonathan Attard on Tuesday tabled in parliament three Bills dealing with media reforms and the protection of journalists.

The Bills were seconded by government Whip Andy Ellul and given a First Reading, which is a reading of the titles.

One of the Bills deals with constitutional changes, another deals with several amendments to ordinary laws, and the third deals with the set up of a security committee.

Attard unveiled the three Bills last week, three months after receiving feedback from a government-appointed committee tasked to analyse the state of journalism in Malta.

However, the Bills will not be presented for public consultation, as requested in a letter to the Prime Minister by newspaper editors and journalists.

Government took up almost 90% of recommendations made by the Committee of Experts, however, ignored or diluted some of the more important elements proposed.

The press experts committee was set up as recommended by the Public Inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The proposed laws will request Parliament to recognise the constitutional protection of media sources, a long-held sacred tenet of journalism. However, government's final proposal only includes this in one chapter of the Constitution that is not enforceable at law. 

The Constitution will also recognise the Fourth Estate in its exercise of free journalism, to protect freedom of expression.

There will be redress of journalists for bodily harm, recognised as an aggravated crime in the Criminal Code, but none for threats and harassments.

Precautionary warrants have been removed from defamation cases and anti-SLAPP measures, which, however, have been criticised for not going far enough.

A Media Reform Initiative group said that some of the committee's most important proposals were disregarded by government.

The group, composed of current and former journalists among others, said that government “humiliated” its own committee by disregarding 13% of its most significant proposals.

In the proposed reforms, government is including a constitutional clause that recognises the freedom of the media while vowing to protect and promote freedom of the media for the protection of journalists and their sources.

“Although these words are uplifting, the government does not properly entrench these principles by recognising the full set of rights that establish a free press and the corresponding obligations of the State in Chapter IV of the Constitution,” it said.

The group pointed out that the declaration is not enforceable before a court of law, and does not give you or the press any claimable rights. “Had the government really wanted to recognize journalism as the fourth pillar of democracy it would have placed these provisions in section 41 of the Constitution and adopted at least the recommendations of its own Committee.”

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