Updated - adds recording of minister's comments and clarification below - Foreign Minister George Vella said in Parliament last night that media needed to be reined in, later clarifying that this should happen through better self-regulation.  

Speaking during the debate on a motion in reply to the President's address at the opening of Parliament, he said he did not approve of the insults directed at the Office of the President for the speech, pointing out that the Opposition could not declare it would be constructive in its criticism but then behave destructively.

‘Let us rein in the media. It is not enough to say we have nothing against anyone, that we are positive, when we know that our media, printed or whatever, continues to hit us and criticise us," the minister said.

"The media is part of us. We cannot say we respect one another and that we are not aggressive, and then the media is so aggressive. Those who know the media know one could be more aggressive through the media than through speech," Dr Vella said.

The media, he said, was important, it was the fourth pillar of democracy, but it had to be responsible. It could not be used for underhand incitement,  for underhand character assassination, while one said he wanted to cooperate.

Dr Vella said he had been in the House long enough to see all this and to be a victim adding that these matters had never been sufficiently controlled.

Unless there was proper control on these tools, one would still be fomenting bad blood.

If the politicians did not respect each other, the people would not respect them, Dr Vella warned.

The minister has been facing criticism for continuing to see patients in breach of the code of ethics, although he has clarified that he has not been charging, and he has been telling such people to start seeing other doctors.

His staff have also been criticised for asking visitors to hand over their mobile phones before entering the minister's office.