Journalists' Committee calls for more transparency

The Journalists' Committee has launched its electoral proposals in which it calls on the political parties to commit themselves to more transparency and strengthen freedom of expression "which a society with European aspirations like ours deserves".

Over the past few days, committee officials met Nationalist Party leader Lawrence Gonzi, Labour Party general secretary Jason Micallef and Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Harry Vassallo.

Proposals made by the committee include, among other things, a commitment to a Freedom of Information Act, a Whistleblower Act and more transparency in the government's relations with the press and the public in general.

"We feel that despite our country's modernisation on various fronts - such as the requisites imposed by Brussels for Malta's entry into the EU - the media sector, and the areas of information and freedom of expression, are still hindered by antiquated laws, old and inefficient practices and a basic lack of appreciation of how the media works," committee chairman Karl Schembri said.

Apart from safeguarding the rights of its own members, the Journalists' Committee was founded to defend the public's right to information, the free press and the right to freedom of expression.

To this effect, the committee has called for a debate about the country's libel laws, which, it feels, are often used by public figures and politicians to silence the press when being held accountable for their actions. Separately, but still tied to the theme of transparency, the committee also called for public appointments to be scrutinised by a parliamentary committee, a proposal also made by the General Workers' Union and AD.

The committee has reiterated its call for detention centres and prisons to be made more accessible to journalists.

Another central issue dealt raised in the proposals is Public Broadcasting Services, which, Mr Schembri said, had been "brutally reformed" in the past years and divested of its educational ethos as a public broadcaster.

The committee is calling for PBS to be placed under one minister and not, as is the case now, being split between two ministries (culture and public investments) with often conflicting interests.

As a public broadcaster, the committee insisted, PBS should fall under the responsibility of an education or culture minister.