At 4.15pm last Friday, The Malta Independent newsroom received a press call from the Department of Information. At 4.45pm, just 30 minutes later, Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi was to give a press conference.

Someone passed a tongue-in-cheek remark that the minister was going to announce that the power station at Delimara had somewhat materialised overnight, and that the media were to be told that, after all, Labour had fulfilled their pre-electoral promise.

It turned out that what Konrad Mizzi wanted to announce to the world was that Enemalta had been given a higher credit rating by Standard & Poor’s.

Wow! Big deal!

But the way the press conference was called confirms a pattern that has been in place for quite some time now. Because Friday’s 30-minute advance notice was the last in a series of “urgent” press calls the government has issued in the past weeks. I am sure that the number will continue to grow.

I’ve worked as a journalist for nearly 30 years, and until the Labour Party was elected to government two years ago, the practice had always been that the DOI informs the media about government activities a day before they are to be held. It was only on rare occasions, when something really urgent cropped up, that the press was called just before the event, such as when the Chief Justice was going to be removed. Enemalta’s credit rating simply does not fall in such a category.

Things are different now. The DOI still issues press calls for the following day, but these are mostly innocuous coverages that include presentation of certificates, opening of exhibitions and a few other silly things for ministers and parliamentary secretaries to show us that they are not being paid for nothing.

But we are being notified of the more important press calls on the day in question, just an hour before – the difference is that these are not really urgent matters, things that come up at the last minute. These are pre-planned occasions, events that would have been on the government’s diary for days, if not weeks, and yet the government chooses to let the media know about them just before they are about to happen. One example of this is the switching off of the Marsa power station last week, about which the media was informed just before it took place. It was clear that the event had been scheduled for quite some time, given the setting on which it was staged.

Most of the times, these are events in which Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is present. It has now become quite a regular matter that the DOI issues a press call involving the PM just 60 minutes before they are due to be held.

I do not know if other media of the friendlier type get an unofficial advance warning – a day ahead, at least – of the occasion we at The Malta Independent get to know about just one hour before. But we do suspect that this is happening. On occasions they also know the subject of the event - something that we would not be privy to - considering that they announce it on their portal.

We do not have the luxury to work just across the street from Castille, and given the traffic and parking issues that exist – everybody knows they are not just a perception – many times we have struggled to arrive on time.

There’s another thing that shows that the government does not treat the media equally. Last week, after the Trade Malta event, two journalists approached the OPM chief of communications to get a brief comment from the Prime Minister. The Malta Independent was rejected, but the PM found a few minutes for The Times.

It could be that the PM prefers to take the easier questions. Nonetheless, there should not be any discrimination.