The International Press Institute (IPI) and four other media freedom and journalist organisations wrote to Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela, calling on the government to commit to an open, transparent, and consultative review of a pending draft media reform bill.
The open letter can be read here.
1 October 2026
The Hon. Robert Abela
Prime Minister of Malta
CC: The Hon. Clifton Grima
Minister for Justice, Research and Innovation
Dear Prime Minister Abela,
The undersigned international press freedom and journalists organisations write to you in response to the recent announcement that the long-awaited media reform bill will go before Parliament within the coming weeks.
Our organisations have long engaged in this reform process, including through our submission to the public consultation in 2025. We welcome the government’s stated intention to strengthen protections for journalists and implement EU-mandated reforms, including many of those set out in our 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.
Given the previous involvement of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in providing legal analyses of Maltese media laws, we urge your government to 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.
We will contact your office separately to request a meeting on the recommendations in our October 2025 submission. We hope such an exchange will serve as an opportunity to discuss these requests as well as the wider landscape for media freedom in Malta.
Signed:
International Press Institute (IPI)
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF)
European Federation of Journalists (EFJ)
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
This joint letter was coordinated by IPI as part of its work under the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), a Europe-wide mechanism which tracks, monitors and responds to violations of press and media freedom in EU Member States and Candidate Countries
