Setting The Record Straight On The Ewropej Campaign

We would like to set the record straight following a complaint by MEP and MEP candidate Alex Agius Saliba that Lovin Malta could be benefitting from misused EU funds.

On 15th January, Lovin Malta reported a statement by European Parliament President and MEP candidate Roberta Metsola, in which she criticised the government over a trade dispute at the University of Malta.

The article was classified under the ‘Ewropej’ category on Lovin Malta’s website, with an explanation provided at the end of the article about what this project consists of.

Ewropej is a reporting project involving both Lovin Malta and MaltaToday, who have received a joint EU grant to provide coverage related to the European Parliament ahead of this year’s MEP elections, so as to bring the EP’s work closer to the citizens of Malta.

Both newsrooms have committed to various forms of coverage, including written articles, social media posts, videos, and other initiatives that will be announced in due course.

Coverage includes the work of sitting MEPs at the European Parliament, the work they and other candidates carry out on the ground in Malta as part of the campaign, and other coverage that is related to the EU Parliament and the EU election.

Crucially, Lovin Malta and MaltaToday both have full editorial freedom and responsibility over their own separate Ewropej content. This means that nobody from Roberta Metsola’s team or the European Parliament had any involvement in our decision to cover her University of Malta statement.

We simply wrote about it because we felt it was newsworthy, and we classified it as under the Ewropej category because we considered her statement to be part of her re-election campaign.

Similarly, we have published several articles about Alex Agius Saliba in recent months, including his comments about the Gaza war, his criticism against the EC’s request for Malta to wind down its energy subsidies, and his proposal for supermarkets and grocers to mark supplier price hikes on their products. All were classified under the Ewropej category.

MaltaToday even covered Alex Agius Saliba’s complaint against Lovin Malta’s article under the Ewropej category.

The European Parliament’s Communication Service, confirms that media grants including ‘Ewropej’, are awarded across all the Member States of the European Union, following a public call and in a politically neutral manner. “The European Parliament does not influence or interfere in the editorial line of the grant holders. The projects are intended to engage citizens and civil society organisations in the debate on the forthcoming European Elections and they feature articles from all sides of the political spectrum.”

Lovin Malta is committed to covering the Maltese European Parliament election campaign in a manner that is both fair and stimulating. We also encourage and invite feedback from our readers about how we can improve our coverage and about the areas you think we should focus our attention on.

This action was co-financed by the European Union in the frame of the European Parliament’s grant programme in the field of communication. The European Parliament was not involved in its preparation and is, in no case, responsible for or bound by the information or opinions expressed in the context of this action. In accordance with applicable law, the authors, interviewed people, publishers or programme broadcasters are solely responsible. The European Parliament can also not be held liable for direct or indirect damage that may result from the implementation of the action.