One of the main characteristics of a democratic society is the enjoyment of privacy by all its citizens. The right to privacy is ingrained in our right to freedom. Anything that threatens such a right should be viewed as a serious threat to our democracy.

It is shameful that the recent alleged breach of the right to privacy of so many people who use the government’s official electronic mail network has been treated so lightly, not only by the government itself, but also by the independent media. The only public statement made so far by the government is that it is considering taking disciplinary and legal action against the people allegedly involved in gaining access to passwords and other confidential information of users of the gov.mt network.

A large section of the independent media has also been very reticent about investigating further this serious incident. This is either because it does not understand the serious implications of it or, more likely, has little sensitivity on such issues, considering that so many ordinary people are not aware enough of how vulnerable they are to illegal prying into their private lives.

The Minister responsible for MITTS decided to add insult to injury. Rather than make a public statement to explain who was affected by this grave abuse of privacy and the extent of the information illegally revealed to third parties, he resorted to branding the concern expressed by the Opposition as “a pack of lies”. Incidents like these remind us of the behaviour one associates with totalitarian States, rather than the conduct one would expect from a democratic country that is also a member of the European Union.

The Labour Opposition demands by right a full explanation of the extent of the breach of confidentiality, the people behind this breach, the victims of this abuse, and the extent of the propagation of the illegally acquired information about innocent third parties. If this is not done, we will have good reason to warn our citizens that their confidential data held by various public entities can be abused, and that they may never know how and when this data may be used against their interests.

It is totally unacceptable that the Gonzi administration is trying to play politics even with such a delicate subject that goes to the very foundation of our democratic rights. How can anyone have one’s mind at rest that the information the government has about him, and the communication he makes electronically from the privacy of his home, is not being abused?

The government persists in being economical with the truth and prefers to cover up this serious incident. It is embarrassed of being exposed on how totally incompetent it is in safeguarding people’s rights to privacy. It cares little about the protection of the confidentiality of information that is exchanged privately between citizens. But surely, such behaviour is totally unacceptable. It will become even more unacceptable if it eventually transpires that other parties apart from the alleged abusers use this information.

Public opinion should get it priorities right when such incidents occur. Admittedly, most ordinary people have far more urgent priorities to worry about, including the escalating cost of living and the government’s apparent lack of interest in doing something about it.

But when such serious breaches of our fundamental democratic rights are committed, amid the indifference of the country’s political administration and the independent media, then we really fear that we are on a very slippery slope that could lead us into a very dangerous quagmire.

The government is still in time to take the country into its confidence and address the concerns of so many people who are justifiably worried about the implications of this incident. If they will not do this, the Labour Party will keep up the pressure in Parliament and outside to protect the people’s democratic rights and to alert them on the risks they incur when a government treats these rights with disdain.

[email protected]