IĠM condemns Labour Party billboard featuring Manuel Delia, wants it removed

The Institute for Maltese Journalists (IĠM) condemned the Labour Party's decision to include journalist Manuel Delia in its latest election campaign billboard, and has called on the party to remove the billboard immediately.

Delia features on the billboard alongside a number of Nationalist Party MPs and officials, despite having no involvement with the party in recent years.

"The IĠM is therefore concerned that, once again, a journalist is being singled out because of his work, as had happened with Daphne Caruana Galizia before she was assassinated," their statement reads.

The institute added that political parties ought to refrain from this style of campaigning, especially in light of Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder in 2017.

They should instead focus their energy on ensuring that journalists are better protected, IĠM continued.

The billboard is part of a wider campaign painting Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech to be "a face from the past".

Apart from several billboards, the Labour Party produced a video feature tallying up the times Grech and other Nationalist candidates recalled moments from the party's past.