The Commissioner for Standards in Public Life has just concluded that there is "no basis" for the complaint lodged by Minister for Justice Jonathan Attard against PN MPs Karol Aquilina and Claudette Buttigieg to be further investigated, the PN said in a statement on Tuesday.

The PN said that in his complaint, Minister Jonathan Attard accused the two MPs of lying when they claimed that the Labour Government intends to reintroduce criminal libel in Malta.

“Despite filing a complaint with the Standards Commissioner, Minister Jonathan Attard has, to this day, not publicly declared that the Government he is part of has no plans or intention to reintroduce criminal libel or similar legislation into the country’s legal framework,” the party said.

Therefore, the PN urged Minister Attard “to dispel the uncertainty he and his colleagues in the Government and the Labour Party have created by issuing a categorical statement on the matter.”

“Should such a statement be made, the Partit Nazzjonalista will be the first to express agreement with it, as the PN firmly opposes the reintroduction of criminal libel or any similar law that would limit the right to free expression enjoyed by our citizens,” the party concluded.

The Labour Party had a different interpretation of the report.

The conclusion of the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life report, the PL said in a statement, is clear and unequivocal: instead of admitting that they were wrong, PN MPs Karol Aquilina and Claudette Buttigieg persisted with attributing, wrongly, a speech to the Minister for Justice Jonathan Attard.

Following a complaint made to his office regarding the unfounded statement made by the PN MPs, the Commissioner stressed that the outcome of this complaint could have been different had the code of ethics for MPs, been changed, but whilst "the code for ethics for Ministers includes the obligation for honesty, that is to say each and every Minister has the obligation to say the truth, for some inexplicable reason the code of ethics for MPs does not request this obligation".

The Commissioner concluded that the Nationalist MPs were not precise when they quoted Prime Minister Robert Abela. Neither were they right when they tried to exculpate themselves by making the excuse that it was political bickering. The Commissioner insisted that reportage should be factual.

The Commissioner's report confirms the dishonesty of the Nationalist MPs and how they resort to fake news, the PL said..