The Malta Police Association has appealed to the Home Affairs Minister and the Police Commissioner to continue to implement measures and effective controls to safeguard and protect officers’ personal information and data.

In a statement issued following the Data Commissioners’ decision on personal information from an inspector’s file being passed on to the media with extracts from the same file being later exhibited in court in a libel case between the inspector and an editor, the association said it was preoccupied as this was not the first time when information or sensitive data was made public in an abusive and unauthorised manner.

This was undermining police work and damaging officers’ reputation.

The association condemned the fact that some members of the media reported allegations on members of the force which were only aimed at destroying their integrity.

This was resulting in members of the force being used as a political ball.