The draconian action taken this week by government minister Chris Cardona has absolutely no place in a free and democratic society. 

We are not referring to the libel cases that he and his ministerial employee have instituted against journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, which of course he has every right to initiate, but, rather, to the slapping of a garnishee order on the journalist in advance of those cases even being heard.

Let us be absolutely clear from the outset: this newspaper is not by any stretch of the imagination in this editorial backing the allegations that the journalist has made in the minister’s respect. The issue of those allegations should and shall be settled in a court of law. And if the journalist is found guilty, she will pay the price, literally. 

That is the appropriate forum for any such accusations and we will be the first to say that any journalist who concocts a story out of thin air as the minister is alleging should face the full brunt of the law. And this newspaper always has, and always will, operate within the parameters of the law.

But for a person, a government minister no less, to file libel proceedings and also request a garnishee order against that journalist before the case is heard is simply outlandish. Such actions imperil the work of every hardworking and law-abiding journalist in the country. It would be a safe bet to assume that every journalist in the country felt a shiver going down his or her spine – irrespective of his or her political stripe – when that particular news item broke earlier this week.

Actions such as the minister’s serve to censor the media on an insidious level, on the level of self-censorship. In the grander scheme of things, journalists are not exactly among the highest-paid professionals in the country and one can safely assume that there are not many who would not shudder to think of having an €11,500 garnishee order applied to them, let alone four of them in one fell swoop as in the case of Mrs Caruana Galizia.

Libel cases are already too easily instituted. Whenever a politician dislikes an article published in their respect, they file for libel. Such cases take months or years to be concluded and, when a journalist is cleared of the charges, they amount to many lost and otherwise productive working days.

But for a court to pre-emptively freeze one’s bank accounts for the amount equivalent to the maximum possible amount of libel damages is simply not on. Such action has some very serious implications on the freedom of the press.

But there is more to the minister’s actions than meets the eye. 

This newspaper from day one has been persistently asking the minister and his staff to provide us with some kind of proof that he was not at the brothel as is being alleged. Since Tuesday of last week, in the wake of the accusations levelled by journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, we have been asking him for some form of restaurant or bar receipt or some other form of an alibi that would prove he was elsewhere at the time he was accused of being where a government minister clearly has no business being, especially when on government business.

Now the minister says that he has proof in his possession that he was not at the establishment as alleged but that he will wait to present that proof in the courts.

This week, as reported in today’ issue, we have even gone as far as to ask the minister whether he would be willing to undergo a lie detector test, which he has also declined.

But to wait for court proceedings before clearing your name over a scandal of these proportions, when you could easily and quickly do so with the proof apparently in your possession, makes absolutely no sense at all. If that proof were in hand, it could easily be made public to immediately clear one’s name and then be presented in court as evidence at a later date.

It should be noted that Konrad Mizzi almost immediately coughed up some form of documentation when the allegations surrounding his company in Panama first made the headlines. He showed the press copies of company certificates displaying no bank deposits and the deed of the trust he had set up in New Zealand. These did not clear him of what eventually emerged later in the Panama Papers but, innocent or guilty, it was certainly the right thing to do. He attempted to clear his name from the outset, as anyone would be expected to do if they are in a position to do so.

It was welcome news this week when the Opposition committed itself to removing both criminal libel as well as the threat of garnishee orders against journalists. Such actions, as it pointed out, are anti-democratic to the extreme. This newspaper could not agree more.