Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi issues press calls regularly, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said on Friday, insisting he was “pretty sure” that his colleague made himself available to the media.
Dr Bonnici was fielding questions by the Times of Malta in the wake of reports earlier this week that Dr Mizzi was not issuing press calls via the Department of Information but instead inviting only the Labour Party television channel (ONE) and the national broadcaster (TVM) to cover his events, with the independent media only finding out about them through his social media platforms.
A spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister told Times of Malta that ministries felt certain events “merited full media coverage and others which are not deemed as important announcements”.
According to Dr Bonnici, ministers in Malta always attended public events, for which press calls were issued.
“I’m sure that Konrad Mizzi would have press calls issued regularly and that would be a good opportunity to ask questions,” Dr Bonnici said.
Tourism Minister was breaking the law
When it was pointed out to him that this was not the case, he insisted that he was “pretty sure” that the Tourism Minister would be available to answer questions from the media.
'Breaking the law' - Casa
Meanwhile, in a statement later, Nationalist MEP David Casa said that by not issuing press calls to all the media houses, the minister was “breaking the law”.
“Konrad Mizzi, who on previous occasions has called national-scale, live press conferences to announce a temporary drop of 2c in petrol prices, is not only absconding his political duty to face the press in light of the damning revelations over the past few days – he is also actually breaking the law,” Mr Casa claimed.
The MEP said that in view of the evidence published by the Times of Malta and Reuters on 17 Black, Konrad Mizzi, Keith Schembri and the consortium awarded the power station contract, it was “shameful to see the avoidance tactics being used by Dr Mizzi”.
“All media houses have a right to be present at any event where any media are invited. This is a right protected by the European Convention on Human Rights and by the Maltese Constitution.
“By refusing to invite independent media to his events and thus avoiding questions on his conduct in relation to his secret deals worth hundreds of thousands of euros with 17 Black, Dr Mizzi is impinging on the right to freedom of expression and free press, and therefore violating the provisions of Article 10 of the ECHR, the Maltese Constitution, as well as breaking the ministerial code of ethics,” Mr Casa went on.