PN And Government React As Malta First In EU To Transpose Anti-SLAPP Directive
Malta is the EU’s first member state to have transposed the anti-SLAPP directive into its national law, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced.
The European Parliament had approved a new law towards the end of February, one agreed with the Council on 30th November 2023, to ensure the protection of individuals and organisations working on matters of public interest.
The directive entered into force on the 20th day following its publication in the EU Official Journal, giving member states a total of two years to transpose the rules into their own national law.
Abela took to social media to announce the news, shortly followed by Justice and Reform of the Construction Sector Minister Jonathan Attard.
“The Maltese Government actively contributed to shaping this directive,” Abela stated on social media yesterday.
“We are committed to protecting journalists and driving positive change,” added the Prime Minister.
The Nationalist Party, however, thinks otherwise on the matter, stating that the transposal of the anti-SLAPP directive into national law is “just one of the recommendations of the Public Inquiry that the government has been ignoring for three years.”
“After three years of dragging their feet on several recommendations given by the Public Inquiry on the assassination of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, today the government has gone out to brag about the fact that the European Union anti-SLAPP directive will now become part of our country’s laws,” it stated.
The statement was endorsed by Shadow Justice Minister Karol Aquilina and Shadow Minister for Civil Liberties, Social Dialogue and Diabetes Claudette Buttigieg, who added that the transposal gives Maltese journalists the least protection possible, and was carried out by the Justice Minister to avoid discussion on these matters in Parliament and within our country.
“It is evident to everyone that the government has introduced the directive because it was told to do so by the European Union, and not because it truly wants our journalists to be protected. If it really wanted to protect journalists, the government would have taken this step beforehand, and would have also implemented more recommendations that have been left on the shelf for three whole years,” they stated.
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