English language newspapers call for removal of criminal libel, DOI registration

The three English language newspapers, The Malta Independent, MaltaToday and Times of Malta, are jointly calling on the government to abolish criminal libel and remove DOI registration, replacing it instead with an accreditation system.

The five points below are the common grounds shared by all three English language newspapers:

1. We support removal of criminal libel and the introduction of a preliminary hearing for libel cases;

2. We believe libel cases should remain the domain of the Court of Magistrates, with corresponding damages (i.e. no increase in damages), especially since experience garnered by the magistrate handling these cases should be retained;

3. Registration with DOI should be removed; and instead introduce a press council of various stakeholders, including IGM, that will be tasked to both maintain voluntary register of accredited journalists and media workers, and issue press cards according to a tiered level of accreditation and based on employment contracts and other bona fide proof of journalistic endeavour; this could be the best way of regulating registration, against the issuance of press cards, and enforce the use of press cards for official access.

4. Confidentiality of sources should not just be a professional privilege, since many acts of journalism can happen outside of the trade itself, by regular citizens on various online and offline fora.

5. Digital issues should be dealt with other legal tools, among them the digital rights bill and the Electronic Commerce Act, and that judicial oversight must be the norm in any aspect that would require an enforced take-down of defamatory material, not the instruction of a politician.