Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning said that there is no definite timeline for when the government will put forward a bill to remove criminal libel, adding that the Cabinet is currently discussing the issue. He also failed to condemn the criminal defamation case to be instituted by the former police chief against Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi.
Giving comments after addressing The Autism Spectrum: Business Breakfast, Dr Muscat refused to condemn the complaint filed by former Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit against Shadow Minister for Justice Jason Azzopardi for comments made about him. Dr Azzopardi will be charged in court for criminal defamation as a result of this.
Criminal libel - which the Labour Party promised to remove in its electoral programme - is punishable by up to three months imprisonment, meaning that a journalist may end up in jail for what he/she writes. In the Western world, this is largely seen as a threat to democracy. The Labour party had brought attention to this prior to the last general election.
The case in question dates back to June 2015, when an inquiry by the independent Data Commissioner found that the Commissioner of Police at the time, Peter Paul Zammit, was in possession of personal files of Inspector Elton Taliana and passed them along to MaltaToday.
Dr Azzopardi held a press conference about the findings of the Data Commissioner and demanded that Mr Zammit be sacked from his position as head of CHOGM security task force.
The Nationalist Party is accusing Dr Muscat of using his “henchman” to intimidate and silence the Opposition. On the other hand, the Government is claiming that the complaint was filed by a private citizen, and that the government had nothing to do with court proceedings.
Dr Muscat insisted that Mr Zammit is a private citizen, even though he used to serve as Police Commissioner and was appointed head of the CHOGM security task force. Pressed on why he would not condemn the complaint filed by Mr Zammit, Dr Muscat said that he could not comment because he does not know the complete facts of the case.
Going back to the issue of criminal libel, Dr Muscat said that while discussions are taking place at Cabinet level, the media is fragmented in the way it debates the issue.
He made reference to a criminal libel case instituted against his Chief of Communications Kurt Farrugia, who was a journalist at the time. He also said that the issue is both about the protection of journalists while doing their work and protecting citizens from being wrongly spoken of.