The new Cabinet code of ethics that was given to the media this morning is 10 months old – but it only surfaced in public today.

The document bears the date August 2014, that is 10 months ago, and went into force in that month in replacement of the 1994 code of ethics established by then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami.

Yet the government thought it fit to publish it only today, and this happened after parts of the document had been reported in the media.

It seems clear that the government is in part still reluctant to share the document with the public, as only a hard copy was made available to the media whereas, in this day an age of technology, a pdf file would be more comfortable and convenient to upload online.

Yet, when The Malta Independent asked the office of the chief government officer, Mario Cutajar, for a soft copy of the documents given to the media today, the answer we received was that the hard copy is enough.

What we did however was scan the documents given to us today and we are publishing them in full.

Click here for the documents