The government has announced that it will be removing the blasphemy laws and it will also be allowing porn shops to open up in Malta.

People will obviously have differing opinions on the matter, but in an age where porn is freely available on the internet, and we Maltese blaspheme for sport and out of pure habit, Justice Minsiter Owen Bonnici’s comments that “adults should be treated as adults” do hold water.

The government has been in the process of repealing a number of laws that are out of date and simply do not make sense in our modern society, and this is to be applauded. But there has also been a chorus of calls for the government to repeal  the criminal libel law that has been used on many an occasion to intimidate the press and journalists.

Criminal libel has been repealed in most European Union countries, and it is a dead letter law in those who have not yet gotten rid of it. Malta is an exception, and criminal libel suits have been filed out of malice and with the intent of landing people with a mark on their criminal record.

This publishing house understands that if a story is libellous, defamatory – or as our law stipulates – intended to tarnish the good name of a person, then the process should go through the Civil Courts and after hearing arguments from both sides, a fine should be imposed, if this is found to be the case.

But criminal libel is a whole different matter. Criminal libel is used in oppressive countries where the press is not free. Regimes in many countries use similar laws to keep journalists from exposing the truth, to try and shut their mouths and use the courts and the possible threat of jail as a weapon to tighten their iron fists.

The press is the fourth estate, and in modern democracies, its role is to be a watchdog and to delve into matters of government and parliament  to ensure transparency, accountability and true democratic process.

If a person is a victim of extortion or blackmail, the law provides for their prosecution and imprisonment if found guilty. Laws such as ours exist in Africa and the former soviet states in the far East of Europe. This law has no place in a modern democracy that is a member of the European Union.

If Malta is truly to continue to move forward and upwards, then this law must be removed and sooner rather than later.