Those who believe in true freedom of expression breathed a sigh of relief yesterday on learning that writer Alex Vella Gera and editor Mark Camilleri had been acquitted of charges which had been brought against them according to Malta’s obscenity laws.

It all started out very innocuously: A short story by Vella Gera was published in Realtà, a university magazine edited by Camilleri. However, because of the sexually graphic nature of the narrative, the publication of this story and the subsequent criminal charges which were brought against the two men caused a national outcry leading to a heated debate over what constitutes pornography, whether our laws are archaic and what we really mean by free speech.

The initial banning of the magazine on campus led, inevitably, to the story going viral as it was simply circulated online, thus publicising it much more than if it had never been banned. This was surely not the result which was intended and speaks volumes about how pointless it is to ban anything in this age of electronic media. Vociferous objections against the crude language used in the story also opened up a can of worms which caused Maltese society to take a harsh look at itself – this kind of vulgar language is heard daily in our streets, so why were people so scandalised to see it written in black and white?

Are we in favour of free speech as long as it is something we agree with, or do we feel we have the right to hinder those who express themselves in a way which is not in tune with our own moral compass?

It was when the Rector of the University reported Vella Gera and Camilleri to the police, however, that the wide-ranging implications of what was happening caused many to feel uneasy. The two men faced not only a fine but a possible six-month imprisonment for “distributing obscene or pornographic material and for undermining public morals or decency, under both the Criminal Code and the Press Act.”

Now, it was not simply a matter of people reacting strongly against a fictitious short story; the repercussions of the Realtà case were pointing to a dangerous situation in which the entire concept of our civil liberties was at stake. For, once you start throwing authors and editors in jail over a piece of fiction which contains a few rude words, where do you draw the line?

This is why the ruling given yesterday by Magistrate Audrey Demicoli is so important. By acquitting Vella Gera and Camilleri, she has ensured that a very basic tenet of democracy has been preserved. And on the same note, it is also time to look at the issue of criminal libel. In most of the Western world, it is a dead letter law. The only place that it is practised is in the regimes of the Middle East and other autocracies. When a reporter, journalist or editor can be hauled to court on trivial (because it’s cheaper to do it through the police) pieces, then it is time to have a really good look at ourselves. Is this only a democracy on the surface? Should we really have laws where a person could face a jail term for publishing a piece which might be trivial at best? Malta is busy right now. We understand that. But this ruling is egg on the face of the Justice Ministry and the University rector. Immediate attention is needed.