The Standards Commissioner has found that the Office of the Prime Minister breached ethics when it locked journalists inside a room after a press conference last year, according to reports.

Lovin Malta and Times of Malta reported that Standards Czar George Hyzler passed on his report into the incident to Speaker Anglu Farrugia. When a report is not published and is instead passed on to the Speaker, it means that an ethics breach has been found.

A copy of the report has been passed on to the members of Parliament’s ethics committee, which is expected to debate its findings in the coming days.

Hyzler’s investigation came after a complaint was filed by the Institute of Maltese Journalists. The incident took place on 29 November 2019, when journalists were called in for a 4am press conference at the Auberge de Castille. On the day, the Cabinet had considered, and refused, a request for a presidential pardon by Yorgen Fenech, who stands charged of being a mastermind in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

At the end of the press conference, journalists were blocked from leaving the room for a few minutes, with OPM staff saying that this was done to give then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and the rest of the Cabinet to leave the room.

The doors were kept shut by unofficial security personnel.

The case had also ended up in court, but three of the security officials - Jody Pisani, Mark Gauci and Emanuel McKay – were cleared of detaining journalists against their will.