The committee for the association of judges and magistrates has complained that judicial decisions are being subjected to “unfair criticism” on social media.

During a meeting with the President, the committee said the Presidency should, constitutionally, act as an intermediary for the judiciary to transmit its complaints and queries to the other branches of the state.

"This would be so that the integrity of the judiciary would not be compromised," the committee said.

The committee agreed that the decision of every member of the judiciary should be subject to scrutiny and possibly for the criticism of the public and the media.

However, it expressed concerns about “unfair criticism” on the decisions of members of the judiciary.

Read: Malta has plenty of lawyers but not enough judges, EU survey suggests

Criticism often came from people who did not always necessarily have the proper legal knowledge of what had been decided, the committee said.

"For this reason, the President was asked to, whenever she deems it appropriate, address the problem, possibly with an educational campaign in this regard," it added.

The 2017 and 2018 EU Justice Scoreboard reports found that Malta's judiciary lags behind most others across the EU when it comes to communicating with the media, with no dedicated press officer to explain decisions and no use of social media. 

The committee also suggested having a campaign to educate people about how the court system worked. Schoolchildren should visit the courts, the association said.

The committee also expressed wishes for a functioning mechanism to amend laws that had been found to violate the constitution in separate decisions by the courts.

During its meeting with the president, the committee asked that magistrates no longer be considered inferior to judges, particularly when it came to protocol. The current method of selecting members of the judiciary was also discussed.

It was also proposed that the President meets with retired judges and with the Chamber of Advocates.

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