Friday, 13th November 2009
KSU president refuses to read banned story
Communications Department head defends police action
The president of the University Students' Council (KSU) does not want to read the story at the centre of a student newspaper ban on campus because "whatever I say makes no difference".
Law student Carl Grech, 20, believes this is a legal issue and it is up to the police and the courts to decide whether the publication of Realtà is illegal or not.
"This is not just an issue of freedom of speech. I'm sure if they find no legal problems the ban will be lifted," he said, adding KSU would not speak about the issue until it was decided in court.
Mark Camilleri, the editor of the publication and a 21-year-old history student, is facing a maximum of three months imprisonment and a fine because, if arraigned, he will be charged with obscene libel, defined as "injuring public morals or decency".
Mr Camilleri was interviewed by the police on Sunday when he was asked for his opinion about whether the article was obscene or not.
His small radical left-wing newspaper was removed from the University campus on the instructions of rector Juanito Camilleri who filed a police report after being alerted to the publication by the University chaplain.
The author of the contentious story, Alex Vella Gera, a 36-year-old novel writer based in Brussels, had said he was amazed by the extreme reaction to the story.
He chose to publish it at the University because he expected the readers would be mature and intelligent enough to get the message behind the story: the pathetic mentality of some men who see women as objects.
When contacted, the head of the Communications Department at the University, Fr Saviour Chircop, did not defend the publication.
He said the story was not literature because even controversial literature, like the book Lolita, dealt with much deeper human emotions, while this was just about a "cowboy" and its descriptions could be offensive, especially to parents of young daughters.
There were also legal implications to be considered and he feared the students involved in Realtà did not keep this in mind before publishing.
"I can't just go in the street and say anything I want. If we all do that there will be huge chaos," he said, adding it was not necessarily legal to offend, even though he admitted he was not particularly offended by the story.
He argued that even the BBC warned about explicit material because there was a concept of "good taste" that had to be given its due importance. He felt the story's message was too subtle unless it was simply intended to shock.
Fr Chircop also found no problem in the reaction of the police because the newspaper was published and distributed: "If I injure society, I have to deal with society. The author has offended the sentiments of the public. I have no problem with you challenging things but you have to do it with taste. Why do we need this kind of message?"
The head of the English Department, Ivan Callus was less judgmental and did not pronounce himself in favour or against the ban.
He said the absoluteness of the freedom of artistic expression would always be debated and might be conditioned by considerations involving audience and the vehicle of the message.
He made a distinction between the aesthetics of shock and the politics of shock: "The politics of shock is going to appear like tiresome theatre if the work in question is not supremely significant aesthetically."
He said what was perhaps most interesting about this debate was the "numbing predictability" of it all. He felt there was still a tendency in Malta to equate the aesthetics of shock with indulgence in the artistic transcription of vulgarity and in the representation of the sordid.
"My own view is the aesthetics of shock in 21st century literary (and other) art is more effective when prompted by experiments with form rather than indulgence in content," he said.
The Institute of Maltese Journalists (IĠM), the Journalists' Committee and the Malta Youth Press have come out against the ban.
RSS
Comments
It is interesting how you are taking a stance as to the taste or otherwise of the work without even having read it. Read the work, make up your mind. If you do not like it, put it down and (publicly and openly if you wish) comment as to how weak you thought the work was. If you are, by your own admission, blasé, then please.. spare us the conservative platitudes. Stick to the literature and art forms you enjoy. Let others indulge in the art forms they enjoy. As for taste, I am sure you are quite decided as to what constitutes taste or otherwise and are therefore free to live your life according to what constitutes to you, good taste. As long as you do not forcefully impose it on any person then you will be met with no objection. But please... keep it to yourself. Nobody is forcing you to read this article.. so why are you complaining?
and you expect a quote from spiderman to be taken seriously? please fold up your pseudo-scholar ways and leave the discussion to people who discuss.
the fact is that in a hub of eductaion taht is the university of malta, our NATIONAL university, the freedom of speech ahs been forsaken. the freedom of speech implies the freedom to insult, offend and blaspheme as "the test of a true democracy is in its freedom of criticism".
must be be afraid to lay pen to page?
Justice Sedley: "Free speech includes not only the inoffensive but the irritating, the contentious, the eccentric, the heretical, the unwelcome, and the provocative provided it does not tend to provoke violence."
And in Handyside vs UK (1976), the court held that for freedom of expression to be any freedom at all, it needed to be applicable not only to information or ideas that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also those that offend, shock, disturb.
I think that our students need to know that (quoting Peter Parker) "With great power comes great responsibility." Also few seem to realise that these student organisation receive funds from the university's budget and thus the university is finally responsible.
To be frank, I think that reactions such as yours confirm at least two points, namely that this piece has served its purpose well and that regrettably, the general level of education in Malta is next to zilch.
@Victor Laiviera:
There’s a lot of subtlety in the story. It’s all between the lines. Pity almost nobody realized. And I don’t think it’s overdone neither. He could have been cruder if he wanted to, but he didn’t. Less is more...
On a sidenote, I am very disappointed that there was no feedback about this from the Kelmet community.
I read the story. I did not like it at all. I found it crude and the language overdone. I'm sure the author could have achieved the same effect - or even better - with more subtlety.
But I would not even dream of asking for it to be banned or censored -
Yes. I have read the short story (not article). I find it odd to see that you want to rely on other's opinions of the piece instead of reading it and making up your own mind about. Don't you trust yourself enough to be able to do this?
The story is rude and crude but not particularly offensive. The strong language and graphic scenes give it a ring of authenticity. I'm not saying it's the best piece of literature around but it has its merits.........
Looks like we are preparing a new generation of jokers to take over the Pajjiz tal-Mickey Mouse when their turn comes along.
Ms. Bonello,
You seem to have read the article in question.
Can you please review it for me and tell me about its merits (artistically) or demerits, so that I will be in a better position to comment?
Thank you,
Jessica
I agree with U
I am very much against such drastic measures as mentioned above, for enforcing the law, on something like this, would only exacerbate the antagonism against the authorities. I’m sure there are other ways how this could be tackled.
However, I still maintain that there should be good taste in the way a work of art is presented, obviously, if it is intended to be regarded as a work of art, in the first place, and not as something that verges on pornography.
Though I have not read the article in question, and have no desire to, however I have read all there was to read about it on this newspaper and I have deduced that it is an objectionable article.
What is the matter with everyone? De we have to demean ourselves to appear avant-garde? Have we lost all sense of dignity?
Just because a left-wing newspaper was removed, does not mean that the Rightwing has anything to do with its removal.
In fact, the Liberals that have infiltrated the two larger parties, have blocked everything the Rightwing has said or wrote for years now.
To our surprise, why is everyone protesting now on this issue? It has been normal for years now, in our case.
It sure makes a difference to your credibility and that of the KSU.
If you consider yourself irrelevant, maybe you should make space for someone else who has the spine to make the difference.
The question is - who's taste? Hers? That of the University Chaplain? That of the Head of the Communication Department (another priest)?
Freedom of expression limited by arbitrary things like "taste" is no freedom at all.
I am hereby urging Mr Camilleri to set up a "Fighting Fund" to finance his defence and that of his publication should the police be so misguided as to proceed against him. I will be the first to contribute.
Have you read the story in question? If not, how can you judge whether it is distasteful, outrageous, or otherwise? I find the KSU president's disinterest pathetic in the extreme.
Well, doesn't that tell you something?
It could be that they are are tacitly supporting the ban. After all they have a right not to be instigated into protesting just to please a few who, probably erroneously, think themselves avant-garde.
By all means let us have freedom of expression but good taste should prevail.
By the way, why are we giving the writer so much exposure? HE MUST BE LOVING IT.
I wonder if the other contributors to the publication support this kind of literary expression?
For all I know, there might be others who deserve exposure much more than Vella Gera.
But he seems to be the one getting it.
Well, that is the problem of the times. SHOCK AND YOUR'E THERE!!!!!
And the gullible believe it.
Jessica deBattista
Gianni Russo (Salerno)
What a mass of hypocrites! Everywhere in the world students are the first to march and protest in favor of liberalization of speech and here we see what our party says before expressing our opinion!!!
The PN must be so proud to foster all these lackeys on a recurrent basis.
University students and their entities must be more outspoken in particular on issues concerning liberty. Unfortunately entities such as KSU issues press releases only on political matters that are most probably instigated by the main political parties, but when concerning other issues they are practically silent.