A new European study revealed that Malta is at a much greater risk of political interference in local media when compared to other countries.

Malta’s risk to political independence in media increased to 83% – four percentage points higher than last year’s numbers.

And not just that, but Malta is at a much higher risk than the rest of the European countries when it comes to media independence, with the average score found throughout Europe at 48%.

Only Malta and six other countries were indicated as ‘high risk’ – these were Hungary, Poland, Romania, Albania, Serbia and Turkey.

One of the most evident reasons for this meddling was due to “evident problematic areas like the ownership of multiple media outlets by political parties and the atmosphere of polarisation that they, inevitably, contribute towards, as well as the over-dependence of the public service media on state funding and the direct involvement that the government has upon its governance”.

The report recommends addressing the issue of political party-owned media in a way that guarantees a fair and constructive space for all political participants to engage in debate.

In the meantime, it was recommended that the Broadcasting Authority should enforce rules of balance and impartiality to both NET and ONE, treating them independently without assuming that their conflicting narratives cancel each other out.

Earlier this year, a constitutional court declared that all TV stations should be impartial when reporting matters of political controversy.

However, only TVM is being monitored, whilst NET and One are not.

During 2021, Lovin Malta and former CEO Chris Peregrin filed a constitutional lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a proviso in the Broadcasting Act on these lines.

Find out more information about the important court case here.