You can silence a journalist by planting a deadly bomb. Or you may decide to kill a medium by draining it of resources, discredit it and/or weaken its influence. In all cases, the real casualty is freedom of expression and the biggest loser is always society. That is why journalists and journalism must be protected.

In the first half of 2016, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers adopted a recommendation on the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists and other media actors.

Under the sub-heading ‘Prevention’, the document calls for reviews aimed at ensuring that safeguards for the exercise of the right to freedom of expression are robust and effective in practice. Such reviews, the Council of Europe said, “may be carried out by one or more appropriate new or existing independent bodies that have authoritative mandates and are supported by sufficient resources”.

Speaking in Parliament last year, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici had indicated he would like an independent body to assume responsibility for the protection of journalists. He later told this newspaper the Institute of Maltese Journalists should be that body and talks in the direction have started.

It appears the institute of journalists has raised the issue of resources if it is to assume the role mentioned by Dr Bonnici. The minister has rightly noted this is a tricky one because independence might come into question if the institute is too reliant or is perceived to be too dependent on the State. Yet, if the government truly wants to empower journalists there is a lot more it must do.

From a legal perspective, it is not enough for the government to fulfil its negative obligations, that is, ensuring it does not interfere with fundamental human rights. It also has a positive obligation that makes it in duty bound to secure the effective enjoyment of such fundamental human rights.

The Panama Papers, Daphne Caruana Galizia’s car-bomb murder last October and their aftermath have, regrettably, exposed a government – most notably a Prime Minister – weak in both spirit and in flesh to ensure institutions are all equipped to fulfil their functions and are indeed doing their duties, that the rule of law prevails throughout and that everybody’s human rights are constantly safeguarded.

That this government has failed miserably in the areas mentioned above is not just the opinion of law-abiding Maltese citizens and the independent media that have found themselves in the firing line of senior government exponents over the past months. The Chief Justice, the government’s own anti-money laundering agency – the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit – and international organisations, including the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, to mention just a few, all made their opinions amply clear.

Only last week, the European Parliament released a damning report after a delegation visited the island “to investigate alleged contraventions and maladministration in the application of [European] Union law in relation to money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion”. This was followed by a cross-party initiative by MEPs who called for new EU laws aimed at addressing court cases intended to intimidate investigative journalists and independent media through exorbitant legal expenses.

So the government should match its ‘positive’ rhetoric on protecting journalists with effective positive action.

This is a Times of Malta print editorial