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.