Police have been instructed to alter their way of dealing with individuals by being neutral, and avoid exposing the gender of any person, a CMRU spokesperson informed The Malta Independent.
In recent media statements on crime and accidents issued by the Police, it has been observed that the gender of individuals involved in any form of incidents have been kept, or tried to be kept, under wraps.
The spokesperson explained that “due to reforms in the procedures taken relating to the Police interactions with Transgender Individual Policies, we were instructed to alter our way in dealing with these individuals by being neutral, and therefore these procedures were taken in order to avoid exposing the gender.”
A number of the police media statements seemingly tried to follow this directive but, due to the gendered nature of the Maltese language, did not seem to translate well.
The prescribed way the LGBT lobby has insisted social interactions should be handled in Maltese, is to use plural pronouns – for example, instead of saying “mar” or “marret” (s/he went), the word “marru” (they went) should be used to avoid “misgendering” or exposing the gender of any persons.
In statements published in the English language this directive was followed on occasion, although consistency was lacking in this area, including conflicting use of gendered language on social media posts and media statements on the same incidents.
When reached for comment, Chairman of the Institute of Maltese Journalists (IGM) Yannick Pace informed this newsroom that IGM has written to the Police Commissioner to clarify exactly why the directive came into force.
It was also asked by the IGM for it to be revised, as it was felt that the public has a right to correct information, and that the absence of such information leads to speculation, which they maintained is in nobody’s interest.
When contacted by this newsroom, the Ministry for Home Affairs and National Security referred to the answer given by the CMRU.
There are also some media outlets based in other countries that refrain from using the involved individual’s nationality or country of origin if they had to be a non-citizen or not of Maltese descent, or even a local of the place of publishing.
Assuming that a directive came from the Ministry of Equality, this newspaper sent the following questions to the Ministry: Was this policy a result of a directive coming from the Ministry of Equality; If so, why is it important to avoid exposing the gender of individuals in a police report to the media; wouldn’t the omitting of such an essential piece of information lead to speculation from the public, which could do more damage than good?
The Ministry answered as follows: “The Ministry for European Affairs and Equality works to ensure equality for all persons without discrimination. In terms of gender, this means that the opportunities and representation of men, women and gender minorities need to be equivalent and free from stereotypes. Equality, however, does not require gender invisibilisation in any way. Indeed, while it is important that laws and policies are formulated in a gender-neutral manner, references to particular individuals need to respect their gender and the particular circumstances around it.”