Yesterday, the Labour Party gathered its General Conference to approve its election manifesto. The manifesto includes a pledge to increase punitive measures against journalists by increasing libel damages. The measure is being pledged by stealth via very diplomatic wording but the intention is very explicit.
There has been no discussion or fancy press conference to announce this.
In the last legislature, the Labour government tried to push a press reform which abolished the publication of reports on “private matters“.
Never before has one single political-party had so much influence and dominance over the Maltese press, academia and the whole information world. The Labour Party has effective control of the University, has ovwelmingly influenced the press with public subsidies and is now moving on to clamp down on the remaining independent press which it could not buy.
Many Maltese intellectuals and academics are complicit in this ongoing and deliberate construction of the authoritarian state in Malta. The independent press stands mostly alone in the ongoing process of Labour’s absolute monopolisation of the information space.
So far the Labour Party has consistently legislated in parliament in favour of free speech and the struggle continues to preserve this historical track-record.
You can download the Labour Party’s manifesto here
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