The Shift News and Ethics

The Shift News has today published a news article on its web portal which heavily editorialises and distorts a reply sent to its editor, Caroline Muscat.

 

The full email is being published below for the record.

 

 

Dear Caroline,

 

In reply to your specific question, the first provision in the Code of Professional Conduct stipulates that “[a] member [of the profession] must not hold, assume or consciously accept a position in which his interest is in conflict with his professional duty”. This is common in deontological codes in most professions locally and abroad. The emphasis is on avoiding conflicts between professional duty and personal interests.

 

Such a conflict would arise when a professional could stand to gain personally from delivering a particular service in such a way that it undermines the client’s interests. It follows, therefore, that a perit delivering a professional service to himself cannot have a conflict of interest precisely because the interests are aligned.

 

It is pertinent to note that we are not aware of any European or North American states where an architect is prohibited from working on his own projects. You may wish to peruse a number of projects linked below where this was done successfully:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzina_Vincenti

https://www.dezeen.com/2022/01/29/architect-designers-homes-interiors-lookbooks/

https://www.ft.com/content/cfe85654-5d31-11e9-9dde-7aedca0a081a

 

 

Professional duty is not, however, limited to safeguarding the client’s interests. It also encompasses exercising the profession diligently, in line with established codes of ethics, codes of practice, standards and the law.

 

Regards,

 

Andre

 

This is indeed not the first time this news outlet has misrepresented the Kamra or a member of the profession. On 13th June 2022, Shift News published a story claiming that “[s]ources close to the agency told The Shift that despite the intense unofficial lobbying, particularly by NGOs and elements of the Chamber of Architects not to re-appoint Portelli’s architect as chair of the regulator…“. This is a categorically false statement. Despite a Right of Reply request being sent, Ms Muscat decided not to publish it.

More recently, The Shift News falsely reported that Perit Yanica Zammit was the architect in charge of the FTS school in Msida. On this occasion, after apparently insisted attempts by the maligned perit, the right of reply was eventually published.