Roberta Metsola avoids MaltaToday journalist during MCAST visit

European Parliament President, Roberta Metsola avoided a MaltaToday journalist during a campus visit at a post-secondary educational institution in Malta on Friday.

Metsola's visit, which was included in her public engagements, was marked by a protest in which a handful of students welcomed her with posters calling her an enabler of genocide for her support for Israel in the face of the ongoing onslaught in the Gaza Strip.

A MaltaToday media crew was asked to leave the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology campus by a security officer employed by the school, shortly before Metsola's entourage arrived. A person from Metsola's communications team, who was present at that time told this newspaper the press had not been invited to the event.

MaltaToday was going to ask Metsola about her position on the ongoing conflict in Israel.

This newspaper's media crew waited outside the main gate of the premises for the event to end but an hour later MaltaToday was told that Metsola had exited the campus from another gate. A spokesperson for the EP President told this newspaper that she was running late for another appointment.

Speaking to this newspaper, MCAST officials told MaltaToday that they had, "nothing to do" with the decision not to allow the media inside.

Metsola and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Israel shortly after Hamas militants carried out several attacks inside Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostages. Von der Leyen has been heavily criticised within the EU for adopting a pro-Israel stance without referencing the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israel’s retaliatory bombing campaign.