Malta's journalism sector lacks the resources, training and institutional support needed for deep investigative reporting, leaving citizens without adequate political accountability.
Where this was said
At 56:00 · chapter starts 52:30
Jon Mallia introduces a theme that has been lurking beneath the surface: without strong independent journalism, all the reforms discussed are harder to achieve. [1] — Jon Mallia "Maltese news organisations lack the funding, training and editorial independence to conduct serious investigative journalism. Without that,…" 55:30 He contrasts Maltese news organisations — small, resource-constrained, commercially vulnerable — with the English-language press, where teams of journalists spend weeks on a single story with the institutional backing to pursue powerful targets. In Malta, he argues, a journalist who wants to do serious investigative work faces a hostile combination of small market size, commercial pressure, and limited editorial training. The result is a media landscape that covers politics at surface level but rarely subjects power to the sustained scrutiny that makes democratic accountability real. Formosa and Grech agree that this is not just a media-industry problem but a democratic one: voters cannot make informed choices about complex policy issues without quality journalism to interpret them.
The panel agreed that Malta must move away from a quantity-based economic model — more tourists, more construction, more cars — toward a quality-focused model.
Maltese news organisations lack the funding, training and editorial independence to conduct serious investigative journalism. Without that, politicians operate with impunity and citizens can't make informed choices.
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