One News journalist Charlon Gouder has been “heavily censured” by the Journalists Ethics Commission because “more than once” he did not follow journalistic ethics.

The commission yesterday said that a complaint filed by Union Haddiema Maghqudin secretary general Gejtu Vella was justified.

In his complaint, Mr Vella said that Mr Gouder had breached article four of the code of ethics because while interviewing him on the phone, he (Mr Gouder) failed to notify Mr Vella that the interview was being recorded. The interview was then aired on the news bulletin on 25 October.

The commission also found that Mr Gouder had not asked for Mr Vella’s permission to broadcast the interview.

Mr Gouder submitted it was clear that the interview was being recorded and therefore felt no need to inform Mr Vella. He said that this case was similar to another complaint filed by Elizabeth Vella, for which he had been found not guilty of a breach of ethics.

The commission unanimously decided to reject the exception on Ms Elizabeth Vella’s case because Ms Vella had failed to present an audio-visual copy of the recorded conversation and therefore the two cases could not be compared.

At the same time, the commission “heavily censured” Mr Gouder for failing to follow journalistic ethics “more than once… in the same year”.

Mr Vella was assisted by Dr Ian Spiteri Bailey.