MV Doulus denied commercial license

Parliamentary Secretary for Financial and Economic Affairs Edwin Vassallo yesterday said government had decided to deny the MV Doulus a commercial licence to sell books from the ship, berthed in the Grand Harbour.
The floating bookshop, which primarily hosts an evangelical community preaching across the seven seas, found opposition for the first time on the Maltese islands from the General Retailers and Traders Union.
"After taking into consideration the amount of books sold during the last visit by MV Doulos as a proportion of total book sales in Malta, it has resulted that this accounts for eight per cent of total sales. This high amount of sales in such a small period tends to bring about a negative effect on the local book retail sector."