The government’s unwillingness to open a package of media reforms to public consultation has been listed as a threat to media freedom in the country by the Council of Europe.

The situation has centred around the government not opening a public consultation on three bills which seek to introduce reforms to the media sector in Malta.

The Safety of Journalists Platform, which was established by the Council of Europe in 2015, listed the situation as a level 2 threat, which constitutes a “serious threat to media freedom” and said that it could have a “chilling effect” on media freedom in the country.

The proposed laws seek to make changes to the Constitution in order to recognise journalism, implement anti-SLAPP changes, and create a government-headed committee to safeguard journalists.

There has been criticism because of the lack of public consultation in the process, first aimed at a committee of experts that was appointed and was tasked with reviewing the bills within a limited timeframe, but mostly at the government as it did not issue its draft bills for public consultation.

“The latest proposals under discussion do not appear to incorporate recommendations to strengthen the legislation and reflect international standards issued by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and media freedom organisations following consultations pursuant to the public inquiry report,” the platform noted in its notice.

On its part, the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) has expressed concerns over moves to pass anti-SLAPP legislation as part of a media reform package without adequate scrutiny from journalists and civil society.

On 6 October, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, published an exchange of letters with Prime Minister Robert Abela and said: “The Maltese authorities must ensure that legislative work launched pursuant to the public inquiry report into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia complies with international standards and is fully open to public scrutiny and participation”.

Abela on his part said that a wide consultation had taken place and said that the draft bills were “ground-breaking and innovative” within the European context. However journalists and editors have been calling for consultation to take place on the bills proposed by the government. In September, a number of journalists and civil society groups urged the Maltese government to launch a public consultation on the media law reform. The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) joined their affiliate the Institute of Maltese Journalists (IGM) in urging the government to be transparent in the drafting process and openly consult the public before submitting any bill to parliament in a statement in September. The government, however, tabled the bills in parliament without this happening.