Peppi Azzopardi and other members of the Labour Party’s media ethics commission had spent whole weeks at the party headquarters in Ħamrun drawing up a code for its media, the TV presenter said yesterday.

He said he had accepted to take part because the commission’s work was positive, independently of the positive consequences it could have had for the Labour Party.

In a statement replying to a letter issued on Saturday by the other members of the commission, in which they denied a claim by Mr Azzopardi that he had trained Super One employees during two seminars, Mr Azzopardi said the commission’s work had been intended to strengthen the work of journalists, producers and presenters to make them more credible with the public.

This, Mr Azzopardi said, probably meant a bigger audience for the PL’s media. His commitment and that of the other members in the commission was major as they spent whole weeks at the PL headquarters drawing up an extensive code covering the party’s different media.

As part of the work it was decided to hold a two-day seminar for journalists, which was organised by Carmen Sammut and himself. During the seminar, he held team building workshops and participated fully and continuously.

He said some people might not have agreed to take on such a task as it might have put the PL at an advantage. However, he accepted because he believed the work would lead to making Labour’s media more ethical.

Last week, it was revealed that Mr Azzopardi had coached Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando on communication before a televised press conference by Alfred Sant in the run-up to the general election in 2008.

Later, defending himself against criticism for the action, Mr Azzopardi said he had given similar help to persons from all three political parties over the years, such as by taking part in Labour’s ethics committee and helping organise the seminar for the party’s journalists.