“I disagree with everyone who crosses the line by criticising the judiciary,” Justice Minister Owen Bonnici told The Malta Independent in reply to questions as to whether he condemns the Prime Minister’s aide, Glenn Bedingfield, for his attacks on Madam Justice Schembri Orland.
TMI also asked the Minister whether or not he has faith in the current members of the judiciary, to which he replied in the positive. “The judiciary is independent and impartial and according to the way we operate, the judiciary is a crucial constitutional entity, and I personally believe that every single one of them is fulfilling his or her mission to the best of his or her capacity.”
In his article ‘Flok hadet siggu tathom tnejn’, Bedingfield heavily attacked the judge after she ruled that the PN should be given two extra seats in parliament after mistakes in the counting process during the 2013 General Election.
This sparked a reaction from the Chamber of Advocates which, in a statement, called for the Prime Minister to publicly disassociate himself from the comments and for Dr Owen Bonnici to immediately condemn Bedingfield. This statement, on 27 May, led to a light slap on the wrist from the Prime Minister who commented to TMI that “Freedom of speech is a universal freedom for all, however the Prime Minister finds the comment to be uncalled for. We also note his apology following the comment.”
The apology in question was hidden beneath a justification in a blog by Bedingfield who explained that he (believes he) never insulted Madam Justice Schembri Orland, but merely made a sarcastic remark about her not being elected under the PN ticket in 1992. He also said that he respected the judiciary and their work.
The Justice Minister criticised this newsroom’s question because it specifically asked about one blogger (Bedingfield): “I disagree with your question which identifies or isolates one particular person. I condemn every type of criticism, wherever it may come from.”
The minister’s next sentence was uttered with a look of disgust on his face: “Recently there were even more ferocious attacks against the judiciary which I attack and unreservedly disagree with.” If the implication wasn’t clear enough, the Minister, contradicting what he had earlier said about the need not to single out particular bloggers, added: “Daphne Caruana Galizia made totally false accusations regarding a magistrate and myself.”
He was referring to an opinion piece penned by Mrs Caruana Galizia on 29 May entitled ‘That is Muscat’s blog, not Bedingfield’s’. Ms Caruana Galizia said that she did not specifically criticise a magistrate’s judgement in court “but her very appointment by this government, because of her questionable connections with the underworld and with the Justice Minister before he became Justice Minister.”
The Minister also mentioned a letter of reply sent by his office which was published on The Malta Independent on Sunday entitled ‘Irresponsible and disgusting insinuation’. The letter called for an apology by TMIS: “The least your newspaper can do is publish a retraction and an apology, and the Justice Minister is reserving his rights at law to proceed further against The Malta Independent and its contributor.”
In her blog, Daphne Caruana Galizia described Bedingfield's blog on Madam Schembri Orland ‘idiotic’ and him ‘colossally stupid.’
She said “even [Bedingfield] can’t have failed to miss the inherent silliness in the suggestion that Chamber president George Hyzler, of all people, would bend over backwards to be nice about me, given the fact that we have stonewalled each other for two decades with no plans whatsoever to change that situation.”
Prime Minister’s reaction to Bedingfield’s post was weak’ - Dr George Hyzler
In comments to TMI, Dr Hyzler pointed out that the attacks which Bedingfield made cannot be compared to the ones by Caruana Galizia because she is not paid by the state, while he is. This was a main point also raised by the Independent blogger.
Dr Hyzler said about her that “she also likes to attack me regularly, but I will fight for her right to do so because she is not on a state payroll.”
This newsroom originally contacted Dr Hyzler to ask whether or not the Justice Minister has spoken to them at all regarding Glenn Bedingfield’s blog following the Chamber’s condemnation. After telling us that there was no attempt which he knew of, Dr Hyzler said that even the Prime Minister’s reaction was weak.
The Chamber’s President pointed out that the courts are at the moment fighting an uphill battle to regain the public’s trust, “Glenn Bedingfield is attacking members of the judiciary directly from the Office of the Prime Minister which isn’t doing anything to rebuilt the public’s trust in it, which is what we need right now. Everyone on any form of media should hold some sort of restraint at points, but more so Glenn who is a public person.”