A group which represents 90 authors, artists and other people involved in culture, has written to the Minister of Justice and the Parliamentary Secretary for Culture urging them to stop the 'absurd criminal proceedings' being taken against editor Mark Camilleri and author Alex Vella Gera for their article in Ir-Realta.

Grupp 29 said the two government members "are politically responsible for the persecution of the author and editor, and for the direct assault on freedom of expression and artistic freedom".

“Such actions place our country in the same league as anti-democratic and intolerant regimes, which over the years have garnered a reputation for repressing freedom of thought and expression, whether they use violent means to do so or rely on legal arguments to justify their actions.”

The group also appealed to the justice minister and the parliamentary secretary, in their respective remits, to abolish censorship of the arts, to update laws defining obscenity and to stop the 'criminalisation of art'.

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