As his mesmerising powers fade and the illusion he created crumbles, Joseph Muscat is shedding his liberal skin and resorting to strategies of suppressing freedom of expression. As if it is not enough that, in the last three years, Castille has gained total control over the Public Broadcasting Service and the Department of Information, in addition to the control of its own party media and some of the so-called independent media, particularly those of the Union Press, it is now trying to hijack supposedly independent institutions such as the Broadcasting Authority, ban political party use of billboards and send an Opposition spokesperson to prison for comments about a former police commissioner.

Since Panamagate they have simply lost the plot. Democracy is in freefall.

Reno’s Dissett and Panamagate

A decision taken by the Broadcasting Authority to award the Nationalist Party a three-minute reply on PBS was, in effect, overturned by its chairperson – who is only one of the five individuals comprising the Authority’s board.

The original decision was related to Dissett, the current affairs programme produced and conducted by none other than PBS Head of News Reno Bugeja. Mr Bugeja had decided to invite only freshly-elected Labour Party Deputy Leader and Minister Konrad Mizzi who touched on controversial issues of national interest, including the Panamagate scandal. On this basis, the board of the Broadcasting Authority decided that there was sound reason to remedy the situation by providing the Nationalist Party with the right of reply to be read out during the next edition of Dissett. 

Undermining the authority

The chairman of the Broadcasting Authority, for some reason hard to fathom and even harder to justify, single-handedly overturned the original decision and requested that the Nationalist Party’s reply should be about everything except Panamagate. Simply incredible! 

The effect of this reversal would have censored the Opposition, which has every right – and obligation – to voice the concerns of the people, and Panamagate definitely tops the list at the moment as it epitomises three years of corruption. Of course, the Nationalist Party would have been compelled to take legal action, had the right of reply resulting from the imbalance created by Dissett not been remedied. The threat of legal action seems to have brought the Authority’s chairperson to her senses, as the decision was reversed yet again, but her moral authority has now been undermined – and by none other than herself.

This episode in the Broadcasting Authority’s history is proof of both a Labour government trying to weaken and hijack independent institutions and the validity of the Nationalist Party’s good governance proposal that the chairman of the Broadcasting Authority should be appointed by a two-thirds parliamentary majority and not a simple nomination of the Prime Minister.

Data protection commissioner vs Police Commissioner 

Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi faces the prospect of a prison term of three months, as he is due to appear in court, accused of defaming former Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit. Dr Azzopardi had called for the sacking of Zammit following an investigation carried out by the Data Protection Commissioner which found that sensitive information from a Police Inspector’s personal file was leaked to MaltaToday and subsequently used against the Inspector in court.

Nothing changes on Freedom Day

Bizarre as it might sound, all this happened when the country was busy with the national celebrations to mark Freedom Day. This was basically a throwback to 36 years ago, when a quasi-fascist Mintoffian government had arraigned former Opposition MP and editor of The Democrat Michael Falzon, accusing him of incitement. It seems that the attack on Jason Azzopardi is but a delayed tit-for-tat retaliation/reprisal by the present pseudo liberal government of the day. Old habits die hard. We have a government which in one instance pushes forward legislation to decriminalise the vilification of religion in the name of freedom of expression and then, in the second, prosecutes a Member of Parliament for criticising one of its acolytes.

Jason and Joe citizen

It must be kept in mind that Peter Paul Zammit did work for the Labour Party when in Opposition, was appointed Police Commissioner by a Labour government as soon as it took office, and resigned as Police Commissioner only to be appointed Head of Security at the Office of the Prime Minister, retaining the same financial package and perks. So Joe Muscat knows full well that Peter Paul Zammit is no ‘Joe citizen’ but rather a person of trust and a very trusted one at that. Peter Paul Zammit is a Taghna Lkoll guy under whose watch a colleague’s personal file was maliciously leaked to the press while political transfers were becoming the order of the day.

Censored but not intimidated

Of course, the Opposition will not be intimidated. As Simon Busuttil defiantly stated at last Thursday’s press conference: “No matter the tactics employed by the government, we will not be silenced.” With Jason we stand as we do with Simon Busuttil, Beppe, Mario, Ann and any other colleague subjected to vicious attacks based on lies with the use of state apparatus as if it were Labour Party owned.