In his book, The Tyranny of Silence, Flemming Rose, editor of Jyllands-Posten, says

“I have become a figure many love to hate. Some would like to see me dead. I have wracked my brain trying to figure out why. I am not by nature a provocative person. I do not seek conflict for its own sake, and it gives me no pleasure when people take offense at things I have said or done. Nevertheless, I have been branded by many as a careless troublemaker who pays no heed to the consequences of his actions.

How did that happen? To the world, I am known as an editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. In September 2005, I commissioned and published a number of cartoons about Islam, prompted by my perception of self-censorship by the European media. One of those cartoons, drawn by the artist Kurt Westergaard, depicted the Muslim prophet Muhammad with a bomb wrapped in his turban. Among the other cartoons we published was another that mocked the newspaper and even myself for commissioning them, but it was Westergaard’s image that would change my life.

The Cartoon Crisis, as it became known, spiraled into a violent international uproar, as Muslims around the world erupted in protest. Danish embassies were attacked, and more than 200 deaths were attributed to the protests. I came to symbolize one of the defining issues of our era: the tension between respect for cultural diversity and the protection of democratic freedoms.”

He goes on to say: 

“Free speech makes sense only in a society that exercises great tolerance of those with whom it disagrees. Historically, tolerance and freedom of speech are each other’s prerequisites rather than opposites. In a liberal democracy, the two must be tightly intertwined.”

Now, we face the situation in Malta where a prominent and outspoken journalist who, basically alone, faced the wrath of the offended or annoyed or irritated persons who may have been the subject of her criticism and opinion, was brutally and publicly mutilated and killed for exercising free speech.

You could not say that the society in which she lived was a tolerant one.  On the contrary, she was hounded and people questioned how she could have been left without 24 hour police protection.

The worst came to pass.  Her crime, if you wish to call it that, was to exercise freedom of speech for the purpose of defending democracy in her country and upholding the standards she deemed essential to a properly functioning state and its officials and persons of public and political interest to account.

The Honourable Minister, Owen Bonnici, this week travelled to Leeuwarden-Fryslân, Valletta’s sister European Capital of Culture and faced a grilling from journalists and cultural authorities about remarks made by Chairman of V18, Jason Micallef in relation to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s last words and the way he ridiculed them and her in the process, causing grief and hurt to the many who were still grieving at her tragic loss.

That the Minister went there to reply in person to the grievances raised, is testimony that this matter was not just a casual incident and that its repercussions continue to be felt and still require the need to be resolved or addressed. 

He went there to deliver the same reply that has been made by his boss, the Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, by Jason Micallef and by himself on earlier occasions when questioned about the incongruous position that the Chairman found himself in after making the remarks.

Basically, that reply is that the Chairman had every right to express himself in that way, as an expression of his freedom of speech.

Had Mr Micallef understood and tolerated that same principle himself, respected it and upheld it, then most likely he would not have felt the need to reject, rebut and regurgitate the murdered journalist’s last words in that way.  He was still, however, smarting from the comments made by Caruana Galizia:  “The situation is desperate, there are crooks all around us” and his impulse was to inflict a sarcastic and insensitive, below the belt, cheap and rude comment and call it just a bit a fun. 

What he is failing to understand is his deliberate intent in doing this was totally not in keeping with his role as a protector of culture and freedom, as the Chairman of Valletta 18, city of culture within the EU.  As that same chairman, he should be the first and most prominent vessel for protecting the integrity of the values of the EU, as especially upheld in the city of culture.  Instead, he threw them to the masses, like a bone to a dog or like a medieval justicier entertaining the crowd of peasants, whilst mis-appropriating freedom of speech as his excuse for this jibe.

City of Culture is now city of peasants, no longer a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen.  Rather, a crown for a fool. 

And Minister Bonnici, in the role of the “Regent”, maintains solidarity and thereby joins ranks with Micallef in justifying this farcical pageant under the defense of freedom of speech.  This one they could not copy from another country.  This one was the truly “made in Malta” event, which managed to bring all the approbation of the Committee onto the Chairman and of the many artists who were participating in the event, onto them.

This, Minister and Chairman, is not a matter of freedom of speech.  It is a matter of culture and education and one which you have failed grossly and thoroughly to comprehend, thereby making you unfit for the roles you hold, requiring your presence before the Committee.

To persist in such a position, denying the obvious, is a dis-service to the European Capital of Culture’s visitors and citizens.  

Separately, on the content itself of V18, tables and chairs seem to have won the day, as though the more there are, the more vibrant Valletta is and the more cultural mix arises.  As it is though, most people will drop their head to make their way through the crowds and the weave through the narrow space left for walking, eager to get out of the trap they find themselves in. 

Again, it is hard for this government to understand that space, quiet space, is a luxury and allows for the best interaction of cultures and reflection.  Take the wide open space of Jemaa el Fna in Marrakesh.  By day, most of the square is just a big open space but as dusk falls, the stalls begin to come out and offer refreshments and food specialities to the many pedestrians enjoying a stroll.  It is there that all the story telling and culture comes to the fore.  On the contrary, our container-food stalls have been dumped on Triton Square to ensure that nothing comes between a pastiz and its consumer.

To admire Valletta, one needs to look up at the baroque buildings and appreciate the history and valour of the place.   Valletta is more, much more, than Strait Street and reviving the revelry of the sailors in town.  There can be place for more establishments but the value of Valletta should not be thrown away for commerce and judged by how many patrons there are at the restaurants and bars alone.  Valletta has its limit, its residents (giving it character) and its nobility which can only be appreciated by keeping it intact.