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Freedom Of Information Goes Silent On Breakdown Of €1.3 Million Malta Film Awards

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A request for a breakdown of costs of the massively over-budget Malta Film Awards continues to be rejected and ignored by the Freedom of Information department at the Malta Film Commission. 

Almost two months ago, the Malta Film Commission rejected an FOI request for the lavish ceremony, insisting that it was still compiling costs. The FOI officer at the Film Commission said that the breakdown will be provided eventually.

Emails requesting an update have since been ignored.

Roughly 60 days later, the Malta Film Commission’s position remains the same and rather the FOI officer insists that Minister Clayton Bartolo’s statement on the matter should be a sufficient response. 

Bartolo has so far said that the Malta Film Week, which included the Malta Film Awards, cost the government and taxpayers a total of €1.3 million. However, no documents were provided and there is no way to confirm Bartolo’s claims independently. 

The event was tarnished by a boycott imposed by several film players, who decried the €400,000 as excessive, given that €600,000 have been allocated to the entire annual budget for the national Screen Film Fund.

It was reported that British comedian David Walliams was allegedly paid over €200,000 to host the Malta Film Awards.

Film Commissioner Johann Grech has refused to confirm whether the budget ended up going beyond the original budget, only stating it will be “value for money” when questioned.

The Malta Film Commission has faced issues with overspending with the Auditor General finding it showed a complete disregard for established policies and procedures governing travel abroad in addition to using public funds in an extravagant manner.

Still, the Malta Film Commission seems intent to try to bury the latest issue in the sand. 

Lovin Malta will be filing an official complaint with The Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner. However, this is expected to delay the procedure of finding out the actual costs and who was paid at the well over budget event. 

What do you of Malta’s freedom of information laws?

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Julian is the former editor of Lovin Malta and has a particular interest in politics, the environment, social issues, and human interest stories.

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