IĠM hits out at Parliament Speaker over report on Castille journalist lockup
The institute described it as an attempt to cover up undemocratic behaviour towards members of the media
3 March 2021, 7:29pm
by Nicole Meilak
The Institute of Maltese Journalists (IĠM) has lambasted Speaker of the House Anġlu Farrugia for failing to provide a copy of the report investigating the 2019 detention of journalists at Castille. Although IĠM s request was rejected and, in a highly controversial and debatable decision, the report was not published, it was still leaked to a mediahouse. It was imagined that, as the complainant body, IĠM should at least be provided with a courtesy copy, but this expectation was in vain, the institute said in a statement.
Newsbook
Miguela Xuereb
A motion to review a ruling given earlier this week by Speaker of the House Anġlu Farrugia was filed by the Opposition on Wednesday morning.
On Monday, Farrugia ruled that the Standards in Public Life Committee cannot call on former disgraced Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to be questioned over granting a consultancy contract to former disgraced Minister Konrad Mizzi after he stepped down in 2019.
Muscat subsequently stepped down from prime minister and later from MP in 2020.
In a statement signed by Good Governance shadow minister Karol Aquilina and Foreign Affairs shadow minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici who also sits on the parliamentary standards committee, the PN said it believed that the ruling “brought to nothing” the functions, powers and the obligations of the committee by rendering it toothless with those who like Muscat were found guilty of abuse of power and in breach of their statutory and ethical duties.