www.independent.com.mt - Official Facebook page for the Malta Independent - Your source for news within the Maltese islands. In June 2012 Standard Publications celebrated its 20th anniversary. Over these two decades we have continuously broken new ground, and we continue to do so. The publishing house started out with The Malta Independent on Sunday in 1992 and the following year our flagship magazine, First, broke new ground by being the first full colour magazine to be distributed free of charge with a Sunday newspaper – which has, these days, become the norm. In 1994, The Malta Business Weekly became the first newspaper fully dedicated to business, and today it remains the only newspaper with that concerted focus. Having done that, this publishing house continued to push the envelope when it launched the country’s second English language daily newspaper, The Malta Independent. These and other developments over the years have been continuously coupled with new magazines and in this area, as with our newspapers, we have constantly raised the bar for Maltese publications. From Manic! to our weddings publication I DO and to the highly popular Taste and Flair, our magazine offerings have been and remain, in our humble opinion, the best on the islands in their respective areas of interest. In October 2010 we reached yet another milestone when our sister daily newspaper entered a new and exciting era, raising the bar yet again for the whole of the Maltese publishing industry, with a new large format, full colour daily newspaper – both firsts for Malta. Not only is the printing crisp and sharp, the design fresh and the editorial content given a breath of fresh air, the new look daily paper is also environmentally friendly – it is printed on recycled paper with water based inks. At over 6,500 issues later between our three newspapers, we are still continuously seeking new and better ways of communicating the nation’s news to our readers. And we are not by any stretch of the imagination oblivious to the new developments in the ways in which people communicate, the new speed of news which spreads like wildfire these days over social networks, and we will, in the very foreseeable future, have more groundbreaking developments in store for the country, perpetually news-thirsty as it is. We have come a long way over these last two decades, as has the country, and we have been there every step of the way to cover the events that have shaped our country and our world. And we will continue to do so in new and innovative ways. Yes, we have changed but we have remained true to our founding principles, which are perfectly reflected in our title – Independent. But, most importantly, we will continue to deliver to the nation the news that the people should know and need to know - without hidden agendas, providing a truly independent voice in what is otherwise at many times a wilderness of spin, misinformation and disinformation. We will continue to bring our readers the unbiased news they have come to expect from us and we will continue to call a spade a spade without fear or favour - not only because those are the values that we pride ourselves upon, but also because that is what you, our readers, want, expect and need to be given. As the editor of our Sunday newspaper, I am often asked what our actual political stripe is – red, blue, or, perhaps, green? And my answer is that the very fact that you need to ask where our political allegiances lie means that we really do not have any whatsoever. Just this week an old friend asked pretty much the same question, and my reply was that our only bias is a bias toward honesty, plain and simple. Our allegiances do not lie with this or that party – our allegiance has been and will remain to the people, first and foremost and above all else. As a fully independent newspaper – not only in name but, more importantly, in ethos – we have a love/hate relationship with both the country’s main political parties. We call a spade a spade − we make no apologies for that and we will continue to do so. In fact, the two main editorial stances that we have taken - in favour of European Union membership and in favour of divorce legislation – respectively and indirectly favoured each of the main parties in equal stead. But, most importantly again, those stances were not driven by political exigencies but, rather, by what, in our heart of hearts, we firmly believed was in the absolute best interest of the country and its people. That, whatever issues crop up over the next 20 years, will remain our credo and guiding light. To contact the Malta Independent Daily email tmid@independent.com.mt To contact The Malta Independent on Sunday email tmis@independent.com.mt To contact The Malta Business Weekly contact tmbw@independent.com.mt To contact our advertising department contact advertising@independent.com.mt