It will come as no surprise to readers of this website that the European Commission did not have anything flattering to say about the Maltese government’s efforts to fight corruption.
You can access a full copy of the Commission’s fifth annual rule of law report by clicking here. It is a document which summarises the EU Commission’s efforts to monitor rule of law in different member states across the European Union. Each country – including Malta – has a dedicated chapter which describes the country delegation’s findings.
Repubblika, aditus foundation, SOS Malta, and the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation publicly commented on the Malta chapter of this report. You can read their joint statement by clicking here.
The Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) coalition also published a statement about the Commission’s rule of law report. MFRR specifically called out Malta for making “insufficient progress towards guaranteeing the safety of journalists, both physically and against abusive lawsuits.”
The coalition, in line with the statement published by local anti-corruption observers, distinctly notes that the Commission’s rule of law report fails to outline the gravity of the situation in Malta. The Commission’s report drily points out that Malta’s recommendations from previous years remain unaddressed; anti-corruption observers are not buying the sanitised, diplomatic description, and the stronger language in their assessments reflects that.
“The Malta chapter media section mentions ‘no progress’ has been made more often than ‘some progress’, making it clear that the country has not comprehensively improved the situation for journalists since Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination,” the coalition noted.
The MFRR includes the International Press Institute (IPI), ARTICLE 19 Europe, The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), Free Press Unlimited (FPU), and OBC Transeuropa (OBCT).
Meanwhile, local observers noted that in relation to updating Maltese legislation to better safeguard press freedom, “nothing more has been done since the government published inadequate draft legislation in 2022.”
“The Commission notes that some progress has been made in legislative changes to protect journalists,” the joint statement reads.
“The truth is that, except for setting up a committee of ‘experts’ and then doing nothing of what the committee said it should do, the government has effectively ignored the recommendations of the Public Inquiry into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia regarding the protection of journalists. The government has not published the promised White Paper about legal reforms in this sector. Journalists working in Malta still face the same risks which led to a journalist being killed.”
