Lynn Zahra to head freedom of information appeals tribunal

Lawyer Lynn Zahra has been appointed as chairperson of the Data Protection Appeals Tribunal, which hears appeals on decisions by the Information and Data Protection Commissioner on data protection and freedom of information requites.

Zahra, the partner of former Labour minister Joe Grima, will chair a three-person board that includes Charles Cassar and David Bezzina.

The board has been reconstituted nine months after the new Labour government demanded the resignation of the appeals tribunal's members in March 2013. But their definite resignations only came two weeks after MaltaToday filed an appeal against an IDPC decision in September.

Commissioner upholds Malta Enterprise refusal to disclose Mizzi contract

Since then MaltaToday has field another appeal, and is now awaiting that the appeals are heard by the new tribunal.

The resignations of Edward Debono, a lawyer, and members George Sammut and Jennifer Casingena Harper were interpreted as a direct refusal to hear any appeals after they were first asked to tender 'courtesy' resignations upon the election of Labour.

They protested the request, being of the opinion that the quasi-judicial body should have enjoyed independence from the decision to ask for across-the-board resignations.

The Ministry for Social Dialogue and Civil Liberties claimed that while the resignations did take place in March, they had not been accepted, implying that Debono, Sammut and Casingena Harper should have stayed on and heard any appeals on IDPC decisions.

MaltaToday is appealing a decision by the Information and Data Protection Commissioner to uphold the refusal of Automated Revenue Services Management Ltd (ARMS) to publish updated invoices for energy and water bills owed by the Labour and Nationalist Parties.

MaltaToday has argued that the commissioner failed to carry out a public interest test on an issue in which both parties have enjoyed favourable terms of repayment of outstanding energy bills, compared to common clients.

ARMS has refused the request, using a blanket provision in the Freedom of Information Act that allows commercial companies not to reveal information on their clients. But MaltaToday is arguing that political parties select electoral candidates who, upon their election, can be appointed to ministerial positions or even parastatal positions to run such bodies like ARMS. Their considerable degree of influence on such government companies was overlooked by the commissioner, MaltaToday said in its appeal.

In another appeal it lodged, MaltaToday was refused the full CVs and contracts of employment of Malta Enterprise investment envoys Sai Mizzi Liang, the wife of energy minister Konrad Mizzi; and British consultant Shiv Nair.