The Committee to Protect Journalists says that 232 journalists are in prison on work-related issues, the highest number recorded since 2000.

Only one of them has been jailed in a European Union country, and he is Alessandro Sallustri, editor-in-chief of the Milan-based Il Giornale, who is in home confinement after being convicted of criminal defamation in connection with a 2007 article published in another newspaper, which he was editing at the time.

The case raised a huge debate on freedom of the press in Italy, one of the few countries in the European Union where defamation remains a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment. Facing domestic and international calls to decriminalize defamation, the Italian parliament debated possible changes to the 1930s-era law in the autumn of 2012 only to leave the statute intact.

On Saturday, Labour candidate Manuel Mallia said that he will be filing a criminal complaint and seeking the imprisonment of Nationalist Party secretary general Paul Borg Olivier for his responsibility in a report carried on the PN web portal maltarightnow.com.

Here in Malta, there has been a discussion on the elimination of criminal libel from the country’s laws, but in spite of so much talk, no law has been presented to this effect. Maltese journalists – and others - can still be sent to prison in cases of criminal complaints against them based on what they say or write.

Apart from Italy, there are another 26 countries who are keeping journalists in jail on work-related issues, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports.

The largest number is in Turkey, where there are 49, followed by Iran with 45, China with 32 and Eritrea with 28.

The rest are in Syria 15, Vietnam 14, Azerbaijan 9, Ethiopia 6, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan 4, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, India and Israel and the Occupied Territories 3, Morocco 2, and Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cuba, Gambia, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Somalia and Thailand 1 each.