Standards Commissioner Joseph Azzopardi has again urged Parliamentarians to allow him to publish decisions where a decision is taken not to investigate an allegation.

In a letter to Speaker Anglu Farrugia and to the President of the Standards Committee, he cited his recent decision not to investigate a complaint against PN Leader Alex Borg, he highlighted that the media of the two major political parties reported the news in very different ways, and underscored the need for regulations to change in order to allow him to publish reports where he decides not to investigate.

On 19 December 2025, he said that he decided that he should not investigate an allegation that the Leader of the Opposition, Alex Borg, had made a false statement about generic medicines.

"It appeared to me that I could not investigate this allegation because the Code of Ethics for Members of the House of Representatives does not include an obligation of honesty, and therefore the alleged conduct would not amount to a breach of that same code. In this case, the conduct did not reach the threshold of Article 1 of the Code, which speaks of conduct that reflects the status and dignity of the House of Representatives."

The newsrooms of the two major parties reported this decision in radically different ways from each other, he said. He said that One News reported that "the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life found that despite the false information given by Alex Borg, he could not further investigate the Leader of the Opposition for a breach of the code of ethics." On the other hand, he said, Net News said that "the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life found nothing, to the extent that he decided there was not even a basis for the complaint that was filed to be investigated."

The point of this letter, he said, is not about which newsroom told the truth. "The point is that such very different versions of my decision could be given because, according to the practice established by the Committee on Standards, I was not able to publish the decision. I only shared it with the complainant (who was Jo Etienne Abela, Minister for Health) and with the Leader of the Opposition.

"As you know, while a report on an investigation is normally published, a decision that a complaint should not be investigated cannot be published. This practice was established by the Committee in March 2019, almost seven years ago. The intention was to avoid publicising allegations if they were not able to be investigated, so that individuals mentioned in the allegations would not suffer unnecessary harm."

However, he said, "very often this argument does not apply because the allegations would already have been made public and the public would know that my office was asked to investigate a particular person, as happened precisely in this case."

In cases like this, the fact that he cannot publish his decision "simply means that anyone who wants to give a false impression of my decision can do so with complete ease. This is not the first time this has happened."

"In my view, the time has come for the procedures established by the Committee to be reviewed in the light of experience. Where this Office decides that a complaint should not be investigated, it should have the power to publish its decision if it considers this to be justified in the circumstances -particularly if the decision concerns an allegation that is already in the public domain."

He said that this letter follows other letters dated 15 June 2023, 5 December 2023 and 19 September 2024 in which he put forward the same proposal for the Committee's consideration.

"Once again, I request that the Committee take a quick decision on this proposal in the interest of transparency."