PN Spokesperson for Culture, Art and National Heritage Julie Zahra said that she is ‘pretty much disgusted’ with Tourism Minister Clayton Bartolo’s decision not to publish a full Malta Film Commision economic impact assessment report in parliament.

The minister had said that he does not trust the PN.

“I don’t know the reason why he (the Minister) decided to publish an abridged version, when they talk about a ‘just Malta’ “, she said in comments given to this newspaper.

During Monday morning’s Parliament plenary sessions Bartolo decided to table an abridged version of the Malta Film Commision economic impact assessment. Bartolo justified this move by saying that he does not trust them with the full report.

Last September the Malta Film Commission presented a sample of the study’s findings, which was carried out to shed light on a scheme which allows productions to get back a total of 40% of their expenditure through rebates.

The study revealed that the scheme cultivated a total of €72.7 million gross added value for the year of 2022, according to economist Jessica Camilleri, who conducted the report with Dustin Chodorowicz.

However, even during this conference, Film Commissioner Johann Grech failed to present journalists with a copy of the report and said that he will be passing a full copy to the national audit’s office. This was also backed by the Minister in Parliament on Monday.

Zahra said that the reason for not providing the full version of the report in parliament is a very absurd reason and claimed that he said that “to cover up the actual information”. She also said that the same tourism ministry has also failed to answer multiple parliamentary questions she lodged.

“There are many things for which they need to provide an explenation, for which they continue not to provide one … definitely it is a cover up and an insult to the country”, she said.

Zahra said that the opposition is obliged to ask questions for which the government is obliged to answer. "We're falling to ridicule, taking the micky out of the highest institution of our country”, she said, whilst referring to unanswered questions.

She said that the opposition needs the full version of the document in order to be able to analyse it and debate about it.

This is not the first instance in which the Film Commission has failed to provide the requested information, as earlier this year it also resorted to the Civil courts to deny the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation access to information that has already been found to be in the public interest, the foundation had said. The case concerns a freedom of information request filed in January last year for the amount of public money paid to David Walliams for participating in the 2022 Malta Film Awards. In the freedom of information request, the Malta Film Commission had been asked for all invoices it received from Walliams, or his agents or associated companies or individuals, or on their behalf, in connection with the event.

On the matter, during September’s presentation of the findings of Malta Film Commission economic impact assessment, Grech together with Bartolo were both questioned as to why they were failing to provide such answers. In his reply Grech said the agency he leads has nothing to hide, but then failed to answer why the commission has taken the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation to court to stop it from obtaining information regarding payment given David Walliams.