Times of Malta has insisted their journalism won’t be impacted as a result of their parent company joining a new media lobby group that also includes the media stations of PL and PN.

Around 24 hours after the Association of Media Owners was announced, Allied Newspapers Ltd issued the following statement:

“Allied Newspapers Limited is the only media company in Malta that boasts a unique structure where its editorial platform and the content it produces operate independently and without interference from the company’s management.”

“The company’s participation in this association, will, therefore, have absolutely no impact on Times of Malta’s journalism. Furthermore, editorial is free to scrutinise the operations of the new association, as is the case with all other local organisations.”

They have become the first newsroom to issue a statement related to their participation in the AMO, whose stated functions will include raising funding from the government for their media houses.

Besides Allied, the alliance also includes MediaToday (which runs MaltaToday and Illum), Standard Publications (which runs The Malta Independent), GWU-owned Union Print, PN-owned Media.Link, and PL-owned Sound Vision.

What do you make of this statement?