Alternattiva criticises Mepa's treatment of journalists
Alternattiva Demokratika has criticised the attitude of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority towards journalists.
Mepa's public relations officer's insistence that journalists present at the Fort Cambridge meeting last Thursday had acted maliciously was uncalled for, AD said.
"Journalists were just doing their duty when they discovered the existence of a Mepa press release saying that the Fort Cambridge project had been approved when the board meeting hadn't even started... Mepa's attitude is totally unacceptable," AD said.
Both the Journalists' Committee and the Institute of Maltese Journalists insisted that reporters at the meeting had carried out their duty admirably in bringing to public attention a draft press release on the Fort Cambridge project.
Last Thursday, a statement announcing that the project had been approved accidentally ended up in the hands of the press before the meeting had even started.
The statement was found in one of the press packs which journalists collected when they arrived for the hearing at the Mepa.
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Eugenio Taliana
Jul 6th 2008, 19:28
If I had sensitive material, my instinct tells me that I should keep it in a safe place, and not leave it running around so that it could be found by someone like a journalist . . . so I believe this was done on purpose.
Mary Fisher
Jul 6th 2008, 15:01
I fully agree with the writer about MEPA. What gets me is the fact that MEPA is now under the Prime Minister's care and what happened? It has become more capricious with people's sentiments and feelings about what is going on than it was before. Is this the idea of transparency promised by Laurence Gonzi? If yes, he should go to Mater Dei for a sight prescription of very thick lenses to be able to see what his futile and empty promises before the election are doing to the voters who were duped by him that things would be better if the Nationalists got in. He is no Mugabe but he seems to be emulating his style when it comes to MEPA. It is everybody else's fault except his own. Your honeymoon is over Mr. Gonzi. Wake up and taste the bitter water that so far your government has succeeded to produce.
It is not too late to make amends.