Malta Enterprise insisted today that it never objected to political activities held by its legal adviser Wenzu Mintoff, but it viewed his editorship of the Labour weekly KullHadd as a clear conflict of interest and a breach of its code of ethics.

Replying to a judicial protest filed by Dr Mintoff earlier this week, ME said that while Dr Mintoff was arguing that the code of ethics did not apply to him, on June 29 he confirmed he had read it and had not reserved his position.

The corporation said it never made the slightest objection to Dr Mintoff's political activities, but editorship of a newspaper was different and information which Dr Mintoff himself might know could end up in the newspaper which he edited.

Editorship of the newspaper made Dr Mintoff assume a position which undermined the position of impartiality which every employee of the public service had to adopt.

Furthermore, Dr Mintoff had not requested permission to serve as editor, and therefore violated his obligations as an employee.

Malta Enterprise said that comparisons made by Dr Mintoff with directors, employees and contractors of the corporation who might also be politically active did not hold water since none were editors of a newspaper and therefore did not have the difficulty faced by Dr Mintoff.

On the chairman of Malta Enterprise, ME said that he was appointed on the basis of confidence by the government, as was the practice in other corporations, but this did not mean that one should cast doubt on the way he carried out his duties, in accordance with the duties of the directors.