Institute of Maltese Journalists’ new code of ethics written by head of Labour Party think-tank

The Institute of Maltese Journalists, which is supposed to be a lobby group for journalists and not for the people they write about, announced this morning that it has a new code of ethics under which journalists will be discouraged from “harassing, intimidating and persecuting people with questions, telephone calls and cameras”.

Surely it all depends on the context? When politicians harass journalists, this useless outfit says nothing when it should be leaping to their defence. Worse still, it considers individuals who work for the political party TV stations and other party-owned media to be equivalent to actual journalists – so when, for example, I am repeatedly harassed and chased by the cameras of the Labour Party media, that’s fine in their minds because it’s journalists persecuting other journalists.

But it’s not, is it – it’s politicians going after actual journalists, using their employees at the party media.

The Labour Party has now moved from focussing solely on me to widening its poisoning claw to other journalists who it sees as standing in the path of its highly suspect objectives. Since Keith Schembri’s co-conspirator, Adrian Hillman, was booted out of Allied Newspapers, the Prime Minister’s communications aides are going out of their way to undermine the Times of Malta, The Sunday Times and individual journalists who work for those newspapers.

The Prime Minister’s communications aide sits at a desk at the Prime Minister’s Office and churns out one post after another, on the website that bears his name, targeting journalists, their friends and family in the most Putinesque way possible. Does the Institute of Maltese Journalists roundly and soundly condemn this behaviour and write to the Prime Minister reminding him of his obligations in a democracy? Like hell it does.

The Institute of Maltese Journalists has never stood up for journalists and journalism. Instead, it quakes before politicians and has no idea what the role of journalists is in a society like ours – just how important journalists are when all institutions, which were weak to begin with, are now being systematically destroyed by corrupt appointments and fear.

And to make matters worse, from whom does the Institute of Maltese Journalists commission its brand-new code of ethics which instructs us not to “harass and intimidate” politicians? Why, from the head of the Labour Party’s think-tank, of course.

This shyster is lucky Maltese journalists are too timid to wait outside the front door to the block of flats where he lives near the Nazarene church in Sliema – and yet the Journalists Institute says we should stop harassing and intimidating the poor thing.