I’m linking MaltaToday’s editorial published today as a follow-up reference to my criticism. There are two major errors that MaltaToday does with this article.
First of all, according to MaltaToday, increasing libel damages is “a bitter pill to swallow” — maybe for them, as they depend on public financing. For the independent press, which does not depend on public financing and does not have equal access to public resources, it is an existential threat.
Secondly, MaltaToday insists on introducing a reference in the Constitution describing the press as the fourth pillar of democracy. This is irrelevant and will not help the independent press or improve the actual reality faced by journalists.
What would help the independent press is the full application of the European Media Freedom Act which, if properly enforced, would altogether dismantle the government-funded propaganda model that sustains MaltaToday’s finances in the first place.
This is why ineffective statements are being proposed for inclusion in the Constitution: to preserve the Labour Party status quo that ultimately favours its propagandists.
What we should instead be demanding is a clear and unequivocal refusal to increase libel damages, along with a boycott of political parties proposing such measures; symmetry in libel cases as proposed by the Nationalist Party, whereby journalists are also awarded damages in vexatious cases filed against them; and the introduction of an anti-SLAPP mechanism for local cases.
The constitutional measure is just a distraction.
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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