31 July 2012 Last updated at 07:03 ET

Malta profile

• Overview
• Facts
• Leaders
• Media
• Timeline

Newspapers have strong political affiliations

Many of Malta's newspapers and broadcasters have strong political affiliations. Dailies and weeklies appear in Maltese and English.

Maltese radio began in the mid-1930s, partly to counter Fascist propaganda broadcasts from Italy. Malta Television launched in 1962, five years after the islanders started receiving TV signals from Italy. Italian channels remain popular.

The first private broadcasting licences were granted to the two major political parties and the Catholic Church. More stations followed and there is now a proliferation of privately-run radio stations and several TV channels.

Since Malta is a member of the Council of Europe, media laws are based on European law.

Cable TV was introduced in 1992 and satellite TV is widely watched. More than 262,000 Maltese were online by December 2011 (Internetworldstats.com).

The press

Malta has a variety of papers in English and Maltese

• Times of Malta - daily
• Malta Independent - daily
• It-Torca - weekly, owned by General Workers' Union
• Il-Mument - weekly, owned by Nationalist Party
• In-Nazzjon - daily, owned by Nationalist Party
• L-Orizzont - daily, owned by General Workers' Union
• Malta Now - free-of-charge daily
• Malta Today - newspaper and news portal

Television

• Television Malta (TVM) - public
• ONE TV - owned by Malta Labour Party
• Net TV - owned by Nationalist Party

Radio

• Radio Malta - public
• ONE Radio - owned by Malta Labour Party
• Radio 101 - owned by Nationalist Party
• Bay Radio - private, FM music station
• RTK - Catholic Church station

Internet

• MaltaMedia
• di-ve.com
• maltarightnow.com - in Maltese
• maltastar.com