picture alliance / newscom | JOHN ANGELILLO
Malta: Call for a proper review process and international assessment of the media reform bill
The Hon. Robert Abela
Prime Minister of Malta
CC: The Hon. Clifton Grima
Minister for Justice, Research and Innovation
Dear Prime Minister Abela,
The undersigned international press freedom and journalists organisations write to you in response to the recent announcement that the long-awaited media reform bill will go before Parliament within the coming weeks.
Our organisations have long engaged in this reform process, including through our submission to the public consultation in 2025. We welcome the government’s stated intention to strengthen protections for journalists and implement EU-mandated reforms, including many of those set out in our proposed National Action Plan on Media Freedom and Journalist Safety.
Ahead of the bill’s tabling, we urge your government to allow sufficient time at the next stage of the legislative process for an open, transparent, and consultative review of the draft, and for legal analysis by national and international stakeholders.
Given the previous involvement of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in providing legal analyses of Maltese media laws, we urge your government to extend an invitation for review to that body, as well as relevant Council of Europe bodies, to provide expert opinions before the bill is submitted to Parliament.
We recognise the public consultations the government held, which laid the groundwork for this bill. However, that initial consultation on the reform cannot substitute for a broader consultation on the bill’s actual text.
We will contact your office separately to request a meeting on the recommendations in our October 2025 submission. We hope such an exchange will serve as an opportunity to discuss these requests as well as the wider landscape for media freedom in Malta.
Signed by:
- International Press Institute (IPI)
- Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
- Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
- European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
- European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
This statement was coordinated by the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States, Candidate Countries, and Ukraine. The project is co-funded by the European Commission.