Transport Minister Joe Mizzi, whose successful handling of his portfolio has pushed transport and traffic to the top of the league table of electors’ gravest concerns, beating even corruption, last year sued one of his constituents, Lawrence Grech, for a comment he wrote on Facebook. Mr Grech is more than a constituent. He is one of Mr Mizzi’s electors, and made a point of saying so. It was, he said, one of the reasons he was so enraged at his poor administration (that’s a very mild rendering of how Mr Grech actually put it).
Mr Mizzi held Mr Grech’s Facebook comment to be libellous. The magistrate agreed with him, and after around a year of hearings, ordered the offending constituent to pay the cabinet minister €7,000 in damages. I will not enter into the merits of what the constituent wrote, or whether I think €7,000 is wildly inappropriate for a Facebook comment written by an ordinary citizen about one of the most powerful people in the land, who he has elected to represent him. Rather, my point here is that a cabinet minister should not sue a constituent because of a Facebook comment. That is certainly wildly inappropriate. It is a form of heavy-handed authoritarianism which shows that he doesn’t quite understand the imperatives of his privileged position, or that the powerful shouldn’t harry, or even be seen to harry, the weak. On the other hand, I think it entirely appropriate for an ordinary citizen or a journalist to sue a cabinet minister for outrageous slander, and for the court to order the cabinet minister to pay the citizen or journalist €7,000 in damages. The balance of power there is very different, and cabinet ministers who run about town slandering citizens and journalists are committing a far greater wrong than the other way around. Unfortunately, the cowards choose to do it mainly in parliament, bringing into play the special privilege that protects them from being sued.
If Mr Grech’s Facebook comment bothered the Transport Minister so much, he could simply have had an aide ring the individual discreetly and ask him to remove it. And while making that request, the aide could have expressed his boss’s regret that so much inconvenience had been caused by roadworks, and that it is understandable the constituent in question is so cross and said what he did, but you know, there are proper ways of communicating anger and complaints.
The Transport Minister chose to sue instead, which will already have forced the hapless individual, who doesn’t seem to have much money, to pay around €400 in court registry fees just to file a formal response, and then lawyer’s fees beyond that. Obviously, the Transport Minister is a bit of a dick, to put it plainly, and to make matters worse, he could have withdrawn his suit against this hapless constituent of his at any time – I cannot emphasise this point enough – but instead he chose to pursue it to the bitter end and a judgement for damages which could have seen the other man financially ruined or at least in extreme distress. Apparently, these cabinet ministers are rolling in it so comfortably that they can’t understand how a sudden bill of even €1,000 – let alone €7,000 – can topple the less fortunate over the edge.
The Transport Minister’s behaviour has been most unseemly. But it is entirely indicative of the nature of a man who, despite being elevated to one of the most powerful positions in the country, continues to think and behave as though he is still an office factotum, which is exactly what he was right up until his appointment to the cabinet.
The judgement, and the minister’s quite brazen picking on the weak (however appalling the weak may have been in tone and language), created a furore on that same Facebook. People were outraged, nobody more so than the extended tribe – die-hard Labour voters all – of the man who had been slapped with a €7,000 bill.
Joseph Muscat knows a public relations disaster when he sees one – which makes his commitment to Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi all the more suspicious – so he stepped in and quite obviously strong-armed Joe Mizzi into saying that he would not take the money off the other man. Mr Grech was so relieved that he actually apologised. In his situation, I would have sent him to hell, got his pledge in writing with his signature beneath, and appealed the judgement all the same. I hope he’s doing both, because if he does not, then any time in the next two years Joe Mizzi can still change his mind and come after Mr Grech for his €7,000, especially if he’s not living on a cabinet minister’s salary after the upcoming general election. And Mr Grech won’t have a leg to stand on.
Mr Grech should also immediately file an appeal against the judgement, regardless of what the Transport Minister has said and even if he gets his commitment in writing. Whether Mr Mizzi claims the money or not, that judgement continues to stand as a judgement against Mr Grech and he should at least try to have it overturned on appeal. It’s not only about the money, and if people around Mr Grech are talking him into not appealing, he should ignore them because it’s not his best interests they have at heart, but the Transport Minister’s.
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