Malta has a Freedom of Information Act on its statute book. But only a few provisions of this law have entered into force. It was enacted on December 19, 2008 through Act No. XVI of 2008. It is now Chapter 496 of the Laws of Malta. Two legal notices were issued to bring a few provisions of this enactment into force. These were: Legal Notice 218 of 2009 and Legal Notice 157 of 2010.

Legal Notice 218 of 2009 was published in The Malta Government Gazette of July 31, 2009. It brought into force, with effect from July 31, 2009, the following few provisions of the Freedom of Information Act: articles 2, 4, 5, 17, 21(1), (2), (6) and (7), 22, 46 and 47(1).

Legal Notice 160 of 2010 was published in The Malta Government Gazette of March 18, 2010. It brought into force, with effect from April 21, 2010, articles 41 and 42 of the Freedom of Information Act.

Three other Legal Notices have been made under the Freedom of Information Act in 2010. These are:

(a) Legal Notice 158 of 2010 – Fees charged by Public Authorities for Access to Documents Regulations, 2010;

(b) Legal Notice 159 of 2010 – Timeframes for Lodging Complaints and Requests for Investigation and Review Regulations, 2010;

(c) Legal Notice 160 of 2010 – Application and Other Forms Regulations, 2010.

The latter three legal notices were also published in The Malta Government Gazette of March 18, 2010.

Since then, silence has been the order of the day. No further legal notices have been made to bring the most essential provisions of the Freedom of Information Act into force, that is, those provisions which enable the media and the public to seek and obtain information held by the public administration. These provisions form the crux of the Freedom of Information Act. Without them the law remains a dead letter. With them it empowers the media and the public to seek vital public administration held information.

The Freedom of Information Act was enacted on December 19, 2008. Today more than two years have passed since its enactment and yet the most relevant provisions of this law have not entered into force.

While one understands that the public administration needs time to prepare the necessary administrative framework for the implementation of the law, a period of time of over two years exceeds the normal reasonable timeframe required to bring the law into force. It is useless to have a law on the statute book which lies dormant. In theory we can say that we have a Freedom of Information Act in Malta but in practice we really do not have it!

Hence the government should ensure that all the remaining provisions of the Freedom of Information Act are brought into effect forthwith and I solicit the media and the public to campaign in favour of the timely entry into force of the remaining provisions of the law. Indeed, the media and the public will be better equipped to keep the public administration accountable in its workings when all the remaining provisions of the Freedom of Information Act are brought into full force.

Prof. Aquilina is Head, Department of Media, Communications and Technology Law, Faculty of Laws, University of Malta.