Here we go again.  That moment when you read or hear something which makes your stomach churn and you get that sinking feeling.  The ruling in the libel case against It-Torca by Occupy Justice activist and actor Pia Zammit was one of those sensations and coming on top of all the bad news on the back of Covid 19 and of all the nasty politics that are daily fodder in our country, this one is really is a stocking filler we could have done without.

I remember one Christmas panto-play by The Comedy Knights where the baby Jesus was tossed around from one person to another and made fun of.  This play was held at the Salesian’s Theatre.  Yes, it was offensive.  Some in the audience may have shifted in their seat but satire can sometimes go too far without causing a riot.

Then there was the Carnival float that had portrayed our Archbishop Charles Scicluna in a very accusative way full of negative implications. 

In Malta, anything against the Church is free speech but a bit of satire, which requires intelligence and contemporary culture to appreciate gives those who can only slide from one scale of red to another with only Joseph Muscat being named as the 2019 Man of the Year for Corruption, standing in between, great stress.

Pia Zammit had played a part in the French resistance play ‘Allo ‘Allo.  We have watched the series on TV some decades ago.  This time, however, the editor of It-Torca had found the Nazi references to be insensitive.  Anyone remember Dad’s Army?  I wonder if we have to censor that too?  What about Fawlty Towers? 

“Silly things about matters of great importance is insensitive,” lawyer Aaron Mifsud Bonnici argued.  That really is what humour is though.  Taking the mickey out of the grandiose.  

It is not as though people in Malta have some really vivid memories of living with the German occupation.  And yet, in France, after the 2015 attack on the satirical magazine of Charlie Hebdo people went out to defy the bloody blow to their way of life and freedom to express themselves, and said “Je Suis Charlie Hebdo”.  Later, in November of the same year, in the attack on the Bataclan concert hall, again the people all over the world stood by in solidarity and chanted “Je suis Paris”.  In other words, there are certain beliefs which we have a right to let define us and which belong to a Western culture.  Having a laugh at ‘Allo ‘Allo is one of them.

But here in Malta, an actor playing a part in a skit, with a Nazi swastika on her costume, is deemed to have been a provocateur.  Prince Harry was criticised for wearing a costume of a Nazi at a fancy dress party. But that is bad taste for a Royal.   In this case, the magistrate Rachel Montebello ruled against Zammit, upholding the arguments made by lawyer Aaron Mifsud Bonnici, for the GWU-owned newspaper.

Over in the Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry, to establish if her death could have been prevented and what brought it about, we have the likes of Konrad Mizzi claiming that he cannot incriminate himself and refusing to answer legitimate and harmless questions.  Joseph Muscat will follow him on the stand and we wait for the ‘you may have thought I had something to do with it but I am the hero of the story’ to be rolled out.  St Stephen couldn’t have done it better.  If they are so broad-minded why have avoided answering so many questions?

And yet, an innocent play that only served for entertainment and culture has apparently offended Labour’s stalwarts.  Could it have anything to do with the fact that Pia Zammit is a member of Occupy Justice and it is more the female factor of the group which touches the misogynistic instincts following on the diatribe of Tony Zarb who called the ladies an age-old occupation possibly mixing up “Occupy” with occupation as in job in a Freudian slip and as in German Nazi in Victor Vella’s word association?  Best to check what is in his mind before incriminating others.

Around the world there is a history censorship taking place, with statues being toppled and removed in order to preserve order in the town or campus.  Even stating our gender has become taboo.  It is not unimaginable that we will soon start wearing not just a face mask but a full-body cover-up.  Strolling through Valletta, we could very well have done without some of the statues that have recently been erected.  Benignly, the knot. 

Carmelo Abela has already rolled out the fake news censorship.  Well, he can have a field day with Labour’s own One TV.  But he will ensure that fake news is sifted from actual facts.  Which is fine.  But who will be responsible for this monitoring is the essence of the issue.  Biased views such as those of Victor Vella, coupled with Owen Bonnici’s stint at education and memorial cleansing are not very encouraging.

We could simply shake our heads and dismiss the absurdity of all this but the implications are serious and frightening.  We are, as a country, in a foreign land, forged from the deals with Azerbaijan for energy to the American University of Malta financed by a building contractor to an Iraqi bank set up with a corrupt practice and an Indian rogue who took over our hospitals in a stunt. How much more can we take?  The only person who could x-ray these deals and lies was Daphne Caruana Galizia and it is there that the full extent of their wrath fell.  In the meantime, it is a though the pressure has to be kept up and any breath we take has to be checked for residual Daphne blog.  The 2019 protests which led to the resignation of the Prime Minister Joseph Muscat also fall under this order.  Anything to do with protest or against corruption is a spawn of Daphne, in their mind. 

We simply cannot carry on in this world of Jason Micallef, Victor Vella and Tony Zarb, Glen Bedingfield and Konrad Mizzi’s paranoia and think that we live in a modern EU country which hosted the V18 European City of Culture and thinks to manage a course on fake news.

This Christmas we will not be flocking to the usual Pantomime due to Covid 19 but let us hope that if next year it can be restored, it will not be shut down for comments against Robert Abela or Jorgen Fenech.  It seems that light shows are much more up the street for Labour’s Christmas fare.