Labour leader Joseph Muscat told the commission’s members in a letter that the drawing up of the code was one of the commitments which he promised in his campaign for the party leadership.
The drawing up of the code, which would encompass the MLP’s One Radio, One TV, the weekly KullHadd and the electronic maltastar.com, was one of his first priorities, Dr Muscat said. This was because he believed that the party’s media had a major role to play in what he was calling a new political season in the country.
The commission’s members are Carmen Sammut, lecturer at the Univeristy of Malta who specialises in the media sector and is a member of the Press Ethics Commission. Ms Sammut will chair the commission set up by Dr Muscat;
Peppi Azzopardi, presenter of the Public Broadcasting Services’ programme Xarabank; Charles Flores, freelance journalist; Roger Mifsud, formerly senior deputy editor of The Times, and Joe A. Vella, a former editor at Union Press.
The commission has four months in which to present its recommendations.
Dr Muscat told the members that in his idea of a new political season, politics should be more than anything founded on a confrontation of ideas, and the role of the party’s media in all this would be essential.
The code should lead to the MLP media contributing more to pluralism by keeping a distance from blindly partisan tactics, and the code of ethics he sought should serve as a guideline.
Work on the code should be conducted in collaboration and full participation of all the employees, journalists, producers, presenters and broadcasters of One Radio, One TV, KullHadd and maltastar.com.
The proposals should complement the code of ethics of the Institute of Journalists, and should also consider the policies and recommendations of the Broadcasting Authority.
The commission, Dr Muscat added, should also recommend how to kick start a wide discussion in the country about the protection of ethics in the media on a national level, in which there would be the participation of the two journalists’ NGOs, other media organisations, the Press Ethics Commission, the Broadcasting Authority, academics and other interested persons.