The latest report by US NGO Freedom House on press freedom in Malta indicates a deteriorating situation of press freedom in Malta over the past few years.
Although Malta has always remained within the “Free” category, its rating has risen from 13 in 2003, to 20 this year, where the higher the score, the less free the country is.
This year’s report explained that the Constitution guaranteed freedom of speech and of the press but also restricted these rights “under a variety of circumstances”.
The report highlighted the fact that Malta bases its laws on the European model “but is one of only three European Union (EU) members not to have freedom of information legislation”.
Journalists’ organisations in Malta have been pushing for a Freedom of Information Act for the past three years. On its part, the Government last July published a White Paper on a FOI Act.
Only last week, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi announced that the Cabinet had approved a draft FOI Act, which would be presented in Parliament, however the bill has not yet been published in the Government Gazette.
During a meeting with the Institute of Maltese Journalists (IGM) on Wednesday, parliamentary secretary for dialogue and information Chris Said said that the FOI bill would be “among the first bills to be tabled by Government in Parliament after the formal start of the new Legislature on 10 May, 2008.”
The Freedom House report also noted that the Broadcasting Authority (BA), the Constitutional regulator of broadcasting in Malta, “sued an independent television station for broadcasting material that could incite racial hatred”.
“Several journalists (including sister paper ‘Illum’ journalist Julia Farrugia and former MaltaToday photographer Ray Attard) were injured while covering a protest by hunters and trappers in the capital city of Valletta (on March 7 last year). The attack was the latest of a series of threats and attacks against journalists covering public demonstrations and debates in Malta.
“The police continue to investigate an arson attack directed against a journalist (Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia) and an editor (MaltaToday editor Saviour Balzan) covering issues of immigration, racism and intolerance towards immigrants.
“The growing number of migrants seeking asylum have grown in Malta since the island became a member of the EU in 2004, making the issue a central topic for local media,” the Freedom House report highlighted.
The Freedom House report noted that there were at least five daily and two weekly newspapers operating in both Maltese and English. “Political parties, private investors, and the Catholic Church all have direct investments in broadcasting and print media that openly express partisan views,” the report noted.
The Freedom House report states that “the only national television broadcaster is TVM”, though the island also has access to Italian television, which many Maltese watch.
“Several domestic radio stations are regulated through the Broadcasting Authority of Malta. The government does not block the internet. During the year, 53 per cent of households and 90 per cent of schools had access to the internet,” the Freedom House report noted.
Karin Deutsch Karlekar, a senior researcher at Freedom House, who served as managing editor of Freedom of the Press 2008, said that Malta’s score “deteriorated by several points due to a series of a threats and attacks against journalists covering public demonstrations and debates”.
Globally, Malta’s ranking is 20th, jointly with Bahamas and Taiwan. The only other EU Member States with a worse classification are Austria and Hungary with a rating of 21, Cyprus, France, Latvia, and Slovakia with a rating of 22, Slovenia and Spain with a rating of 23, Poland with rating of 24, Greece with a rating of 27, and, finally, Italy with a rating of 29.
Commenting on the results, Freedom House said: “Global press freedom underwent a clear decline in 2007, with journalists struggling to work in increasingly hostile environments in almost every region in the world.
“The decline in press freedom—which occurred in authoritarian countries and established democracies alike—continues a six-year negative trend,” the US NGO said.
The Freedom House report measures three kinds of pressures: the legal environment, the political environment and the economic environment. The higher the score, the less free a country is.