Journalists should always act on principles of justice and morals and should at the very minimum publish the truth, Speaker of the House Anglu Farrugia told a conference as he announced the first paper for the code of ethics for journalists.

Dr Farrugia also said that journalists are obligated to ensure responsible and independent content while also respecting the rights and liberties of the people.

The speaker stressed the importance in respecting the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, in particular, the right of expression and information, which is enshrined in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

These rights which included the right to live, the right not to be subjected to discriminatory behavior or victim of persecution, and the right to privacy, he said, were fundamental to every state which embraces parliamentary democracy. 

 

Dr Carmen Sammut, Pro Rector for Students & Staff Affairs and Outreach and lecturer at the University of Malta, helped draft the code of ethics said that the liberty currently granted to journalists amounted to “power without responsibility”.

Dr Sammut said that currently newsrooms did not have any form of code of ethics and thusly could not be trusted to follow a set of guidelines created by the newsroom itself, saying that the industry “never showed the discipline needed for self-regulation”.

She went on to say that sometimes journalists employ “‘more insidious tactics than politicians”.

Dr Sammut did stress that it was important that those selected on the media ethics commission have to be chosen transparently.

She said that the code is based on a number of things such as advertising guidlines, old regulations, codes adopted by foreign media and seminars they held with people from the industry.

An annual conference with journalists will also take place in order to ensure that the code remains up to the date with an ever changing industry, Dr Sammut said.

 

Pierre Portelli, Director of Business and Content at The Malta Independent, speaking in the intervention from the editors, questioned who exactly the code of ethics were designed for, saying that the code more reflected an institution who wants to regulate the industry.

Mr Portelli also criticised the legislators for failing to properly conduct consultation with actual journalists within the newsrooms, saying this was evident in certain provisions of the code, specifically in the section which spoke of harassment.

Pointing towards the code of ethics issued by the Society of Professional Journalists, Mr Portelli said that the code should extend beyond its own personal bubble and include provisions which specifically address the public itself saying that “the public is entitled to enough information as possible”.

He also said that the code should also look to praise journalists work referencing another part of the SPJ code which says that journalists should “be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable. Give voice to the voiceless.”

Ultimately, he questioned why the Institute for Journalists would draft a new code of ethics when the one issued by the SPJ was superior. 

Editor of Times of Malta, Ray Bugeja said that correct information is the stamp of serious journalism, which he says has become more and more rare. Quoting the pope, Mr Bugeja said that disinformation is the worst thing the media could and should strive to become more transparent.

The current media, he said, is only interest in reporting scandals and bad news.

Saviou Balzan, founder and co-owner of MaltaToday, said that the code does not reflect the reality of the day and does not address the actual need for a code of ethics, pointing to the vagueness surrounding the definition of ‘harassment’ as evidence of this.


Head of News at PBS, Reno Bugeja stressed that journalists needed to be respected by the public and the institutions but also said that most viewers wanted content with a more positive outlook. 

Fabien Demicoli, the Head of News at Net, and Jason Micallef, Chariman at One News and V18 also took part in the discussion.

Mr Micalled said that ONE TV has a times strecthed from the truth in its reporting and admitted that the media stations owner by the political parties were also obliged to report responsible and truthful content.