The Institute of Maltese Journalists has condemned threats and attempts to intimidate or ridicule journalists.

In a statement it did not specify what it was referring to, but said it had noticed instances where an editor and journalists received messages making threats or attempting to intimidate them.

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In another case, an attempt was made to ridicule a journalist simply for doing his job. There were also several cases where journalists attacked each other. 

The institute said that all those who tried to undermine journalists would be threatening freedom of expression as guaranteed by the constitution. Therefore any attack on journalists was an attack on democracy.

The institute said it would request an urgent meeting with the communications offices of the government and the opposition. 

While the institute did not mention cases, attacks against journalists flared last week after blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia reported that minister Chris Cardona visited a brothel in Germany and the Nationalist Party then sent one of its own reporters to the same brothel to check out the story. He questioned several prostitutes about whether they had seen the minister there.