Minister says Steward request to investigate journalist is ‘non-starter’

Justice minister Jonathan Attard has said that a purported call on the Maltese government to investigate MaltaToday editor Matthew Vella was a “non-starter”.

Steward Health Care International’s pressure on Malta’s government to investigate Vella over their allegations of ‘collusion’ with third-party financial investors was given short shrift by Attard, who took questions after a press conference launching a reorganisation of the State Advocate and Attorney General’s offices.

Attard said that it was not the government’s role to investigate journalists. Describing the request as a “non-starter”, Attard said that he had not yet seen the letter mentioned in Steward’s aggressively-worded right of reply, but argued that this government had introduced laws aimed at increasing the protection of journalists.

Mediatoday asks PM to confront unacceptable Steward request for journalist’s investigation

“My views are very clear. It is unacceptable to have a situation where a journalist is threatened with being reported to the government in order for the government to investigate him. Besides this fact, it is not the Government’s role to investigate any journalist. As a Government, I can say, we have, in a very consistent way, been there to ensure that we strengthen the protections that journalists have in our country as much as possible.”

“A few months ago, I myself tabled three draft laws in Parliament to further protect journalists in Malta, to ensure that they have the highest possible protection so that they can carry out their functions. The Government’s role is not to investigate.

“The Government’s role is not to investigate. I must say that we are not aware of the letter mentioned in the right of reply which was sent to Matthew Vella, but the fact remains that this situation is, in itself a non-starter, that in some way or another [someone can ask] the Government to investigate a journalist.”