Five international press freedom organisations have written to the Prime Minister and Justice Minister to ask the Maltese government to commit to allowing an open, transparent, and consultative review of a pending draft media reform bill.
In a letter, the organisations told Prime Minister Robert Abela and Justice Minister Clifton Grima that the government must allow sufficient time for the draft media reform that is set to be tabled to be properly reviewed.
The five signatory organisations were the International Press Institute (IPI), the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), and the Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
The organisations said that they have long engaged in the media reform bill proposed locally, including by participating in a public consultation in 2025.
They welcomed the government’s stated intention to strengthen protections for journalists and implement EU-mandated reforms, including many of those set out in the organisations’ own proposed National Action Plan on Media Freedom and Journalist Safety.
“Ahead of the bill’s tabling, we urge your government to allow sufficient time at the next stage of the legislative process for an open, transparent, and consultative review of the draft, and for legal analysis by national and international stakeholders,” the organisations told the Prime Minister.
The organisations also said that given the previous involvement of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in providing legal analyses of Maltese media laws, the government should extend an invitation for review to that body, as well as relevant Council of Europe bodies, to provide expert opinions before the bill is submitted to Parliament.
“We recognise the public consultations the government held, which laid the groundwork for this bill. However, that initial consultation on the reform cannot substitute for a broader consultation on the bill’s actual text,” the organisations said.
They said that they will contact his office separately to request meetings on the recommendations they had made in October 2025, and expressed hope that “such an exchange will serve as an opportunity to discuss these requests as well as the wider landscape for media freedom in Malta.”