After the local and international uproar caused by his demand that garnishee orders be imposed on Daphne Caruana Galizia following the opening of libel cases by him and by his assistant, Minister Chris Cardona gave the impression he relented.

Not against DCG, of course, but in general. He said he would open other libel cases but he would not ask for any more garnishee orders.

In fact, on Monday, Minister Cardona lodged a libel case against In-Nazzjon and against a Medialink reporter but pointed out he was not asking for any garnishee order.

Now according to Daphne’s blog yesterday evening, Minister Cardona has lodged four more libel cases against her. One wonders if there will be demands for garnishee orders tied to these new cases or whether the minister’s new approach will include Ms Caruana Galizia as well.

So we are left unsure whether the minister has realised how his stance over the past week has damaged his government and his party so great was the reaction both in Malta and abroad. Or whether he has realised that he has been outplayed by those who put in money to effectively annul the garnishee order and that his weapon of choice was blunted.

Now, to complicate matters more, ministers Owen Bonnici and Evarist Bartolo yesterday called a press conference (see pg 2) and presented a bill which proposes a reform in media law. The bill proposes a number of changes which will affect journalists and civil libel cases.

Explaining the gist of the 22-page document, Minister Owen Bonnici said that the bill proposes the removal of the criminal libel once and for all. It also removes the possibility for a journalist facing libel to be slapped with a precautionary warrant, on both money in bank and property,

It was not made clear whether this was a government initiative or whether this was a personal initiative on the part of the two ministers. The Opposition had long been proposing about the same measures.

Such an initiative would seem to be read as a disavowal of Minister Cardona’s garnishee order initiative. Of course, no one expects the minister to admit to having overstepped all sorts of red lines (considering too that the attack on him overstepped some lines as well) but that is what the Bonnici-Bartolo proposal amounts to and also Minister Cardona’s ‘sparing’ Mario Frendo the garnishee order.

The process of law should not be dependent on personal whims or applicable to one but not applicable to another. The law is inflexible and impartial, applying to one and all indiscriminately. It is true that if someone hits your car, you can decide whether to sue or not, but in the area that libel laws are applicable it is not wise to allow such freedom and open to subjectivity.

We may be misinterpreting the whole situation but that is what, to an unbiased observer, this situation looks like. Without in any way undermining Minister Cardona, the Bonnici-Bartolo initiative looks very much like saying he was wrong in doing what he did.

Which is what the whole country has been saying.