Rector made cardinal mistake – Alfred Sant
Former Prime Minister and author Alfred Sant believes University rector Juanito Camilleri made a “cardinal mistake” when he reported a student newspaper to the police for publishing a sexually explicit short story last year.
However, the literary heavyweight did not go so far as editor Mark Camilleri and author Alex Vella Gera, who say Prof. Camilleri should issue a public apology or resign in light of the court’s ruling that their story did not offend public morals.
“I’m not saying he should resign,” Dr Sant said, adding also that an apology did not mean much in this country.
“He should accept that there was a problem,” he said, referring to Prof. Camilleri’s decision to report the student newspaper for police action to be taken.
He also thinks Prof. Camilleri is not justified in refusing to comment until it becomes clear if the police will appeal the court’s ruling.
“What does that have to do with anything,” asked Dr Sant, who had written an affidavit to defend the author and editor in court.
The police had until yesterday to appeal the judgment. Although they have refused to answer questions by The Times about whether they would be appealing, it is understood that no appeal was filed by the time of publishing.
Magistrate Audrey Demicoli this week found that the prosecution had brought no evidence to define public morality in Malta and how it had been infringed. In the court’s opinion, the fact that the piece, published in student newspaper Realtà, was shocking and evoked disgust in readers did not qualify as obscene and pornographic.
Former president of the Chamber of Advocates, Andrew Borg Cardona, welcomed the court judgment and said the magistrate sent a clear message to legislators to ensure there are clear definitions in the law.
“The magistrate said public morality has to be defined appropriately and the absence of a definition means the accused cannot be found guilty.”
However, Dr Borg Cardona said he preferred judges and magistrates to “take the temperature of the time (and rule accordingly), because any definition today is out of date tomorrow.”
Asked whether the rector should resign, Dr Borg Cardona said he too was “extremely disappointed” by the rector’s asking the police to prosecute, but this should not amount to a resignation.
“He should acknowledge he was wrong. But the courts exist so differences of opinion can be resolved. I’m disappointed he had that opinion. But now it has been resolved and I don’t think he should resign or apologise.”
Media lecturer Fr Joe Borg said he still had a “very poor opinion” of the controversial story and found comfort in the opinion of established writers who shared his view.
While the magistrate’s court felt this story fell within the boundaries of the law, “other courts may have a different opinion”, he said. But until any different judgment is given, this decision should be “fully respected”.
“Besides, I think that it is better to err on the side of the extension of freedom than to err for its restriction.”
Fr Borg said magistrates who say there is an illegality do not apologise or resign when a higher court decides there is no illegality, so the same should apply to the rector, who took his decision to report after legal advice.
Law lecturer David Friggieri said he too did not think the rector should resign, “but this issue does kick up a few vital questions”.
The rector is “no stuffy traditionalist”, he said, and took a “functional decision” towards a text that was “somewhat revolutionary for cliché-ridden old Malta”.
“But perhaps the Realtà debacle does show us the limits of a purely pragmatic, largely functional, almost mechanical vision of what a vibrant university should be. An appreciation of where facts end and literature begins is as crucial as understanding the intricacies of nanotechnology.”
The National Council of Women, which had slammed the story for glorifying sexual violence, reiterated its no-tolerance stand to “sexist insults and degrading images of women and men in the media”.
The council said any “directly or indirectly” discriminatory text was “simply reinforcing the ingrained culture that women, rather than being free, independent thinkers on equal footing with men, are simply sex objects”.
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Frans Attard
Mar 20th 2011, 07:26
@ M.Mizzi
B'daqshekk, billi qratha bintek dik l-istorja, x'gara?
M Spiteri
Mar 19th 2011, 23:13
In my opinion the University Rector should resign. How can we have a university rector in 2011 who is still living in the sixties .... yes the 1960...zmien id-dnub il-mejjet. How can he be the inspiration of the students who are destined to be the man and woman and leaders of this country in years to come why he is still 50 years back?
MBorg
Mar 20th 2011, 00:45
Grow up repeating what someone said is childish.
If it had been published in any newspaper belonging to any UK Univeristy both AVG and the editor would have been punished. with the editor forsed to resign. Being able to write trash does not make one modern , but pathetic. How other authors came out in the defence of AVG is beyond me.
The University Rector was right. no one should be allowed to offend female students in the " name of art. " Certainly not in a publication belonging to the university.
Marlene F-Hills
Mar 19th 2011, 22:29
I made a point of reading this piece of work currently in the news, on the internet, this morning. I must say I found it to be a shocking piece of pornographic trash by someone seeking attention, daring to see how far he can go. There was no art in this piece but disgusting descriptions of carnal lechery.I don't agree that this goes on in Malta as some said because men in Malta brought up by the tenets of the faith we have there whether practised or not are mostly gentlemen and they respect women.I suppose the students enjoyed a giggle over it but i think it went over the boundaries of decency. Men with such a disease of uncontrolled sexuality as the protagonist are medically treated in the UK and the USA.
isabelle borg
Mar 21st 2011, 12:43
oh.my.god.
your comment makes me laugh.
u jaqtghali nifsi.
hafna.
Frans Attard
Mar 19th 2011, 22:16
@ Alfred Sant
Jekk ir-rettur, skond int, ghamel zball kardinali, kien zball li jindunaw bih ghorrief bhalek, izda l-izball li ghamilt int meta kont ghidt li l-'partnership rebah' kien zball papali ghax anki c-cwiec bhali indunaw bih. U f'Malta il-maggoranza kbira tal-poplu m'humiex ghorrief bhalek.
U ghidt li apologiji ma jiswewx xejn f'dan il-pajjiz sabiex tiggustifika ruhek talli int qatt ma ghamiltha wara dak l-izball papali tieghek.
A TAgliaferro
Mar 19th 2011, 21:23
Mag Demicoli could us ethese definitions of morality, if she couldn't find any :
“I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.” Ernest Hemingway
“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
Moral relativism has set in so deeply that the gilded classes have become incapable of discerning right from wrong. Everything can be explained away, especially by journalists. Life is one great moral mush--sophistry washed down with Chardonnay. The ordinary citizens, thank goodness, still adhere to absolutes. . . . It is they who have saved the republic from creeping degradation while their "betters" were derelict.” Charles Dickens
Matthew 18:6-7:
"But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of scandals. For it must needs be that scandals come: but nevertheless woe to that man by whom the scandal comes. "
Victor Paul Borg
Mar 19th 2011, 14:40
The university rector decided on his own initiative to report a piece of literature for prosecution under laws that are rooted in interpretation of obscenity arising from extreme Christian-driven conservatism and intolerance. I think most of us would expect a rector of the university to be a progressive who would rile and rally against such laws, and not instigate the persecution of a piece of literature under such backward law.
I for one - speaking as a Maltese international writer - am troubled that Malta has a university rector that has resorted to action that is anti-progressive, and action that has now been discredited by a court of law. Many others share my disquiet, and this means that the rector of the university has consequently lost the confidence of a large section of the population - he has in fact lost the confidence of practicing authors and writers in Malta (I say 'practicing' to make a distinction from some people who were never professional writers but pretend to be literary persons).
Due to this, it is appropriate for the rector to leave his post.
www.victorborg.com
Andy Farrugia
Mar 19th 2011, 15:30
Who's this guy to make bald statements about what large sections of the population think and believe? Never heard of him!
MBorg
Mar 19th 2011, 14:00
Rather than Prof. Camilleri should issue a public apology and resign it should be Mark Camilleri who should issue an apology to the female students.
The editores of a University of Oxford newspaper were ordered to resign after a spoof edition in which black people were referred to in racist terms and pornographic images were used.
The present editors said " we understand that stire can be misconstrued and last term's editors apologise for any offence which might have been caused and have now resigned. "
A spokesman for the University said " The university strongly condemns any form of racism and discremination and reaffirms its commitment to promoting good race relations. The spokesman refused to discuss whether any students face disciplinary actions. "
The name of the edition was " Lecher " which means the indulgence of sexual desire , lewd and lustful behaviour. Does it ring a bell ?
This did not take palce in the " dark ages " but in modern England in 2009.
Would the outcome of the court action be different if AVG story made fun of black people instead of offending women ?
James De Giorgio
Mar 19th 2011, 13:15
Thus says the expert of cardinal mistakes...
Nothing as near as your assertion that Partnership won!!
John Azzopardi
Mar 19th 2011, 12:50
I did not vote for Alfred Sant, but I do tend to agree with him on this issue. Maltese needs to stop being so scrupulous on these type of issues when all our young people can access any adult website on the internet. And a rector should have known better.
L. Cutajar
Mar 19th 2011, 11:56
Paprata ohra ta Alfred Sant.
C.Camilleri
Mar 19th 2011, 13:10
Tista telabora ftit u tispjega ruhek? Lanqas int BIASED wkoll.
M. Tabone
Mar 19th 2011, 11:12
Jista' xi hadd jilluminani xi jfissru l-kliem 'oxxenita' u 'pornografija'? Ghax jekk dik il-hmieg ta' 'storja' jew satira jew ghidilha li trid mhix oxxenita ma nafx x'tista' ssejhilha.Letteratura mhix zgur! U tqabbluhiex ma' Lady Chatterly's Lover ta' DH Lawrence! Din hmieg for the sake of it u xejn aktar. Jirrizenja r-rettur? Tajba din! Ftakru li din l-oxxenita marret f'idejn zghazagh tas-Sixth Form ukoll! U dawk zgur m'humiex adulti skont il-ligi! Il-parti l-kbira minnhom huma taht it-tmintax-il sena. U jekk skont il-ligi m'hemmx definizzjoni ta' xi tfisser pornografija 'then the law is a ass'! U jien qrajtha l-istorja! Avolja tqallajt! Biex inkun naf fuq xiex qeghda nitkellem! U m'hemm ebda valur letterarju fiha!
M. Mizzi
Mar 19th 2011, 12:35
U ghalfejn tahseb l-istudenti tas-sixth form u hafna zaghzagh ohra, fosthom binti li kienet ghadha Form 5 qraw din "l-istorja"? Mhux minhabba l-"fuss" enormi li sar fuqha? Nassikurak li kieku hallewha ghaddejja u hadd ma qal xejn, ma kienux jaqrawha kwart min-nies li qrawha.
Ganni Ellul
Mar 19th 2011, 11:07
I am not prude but I do believe the article was a filthy piece of literary pornography and that the author should at least have been banned from writing in a student's newpaper.
Andy Farrugia
Mar 19th 2011, 12:00
The problem has nothing to do with "banning"; it is more a question of the unethical issue of how a man in his late thirties "used" a highly impressionable and immature twenty year old ( and exploited his misguided quest for notoriety) to publish a piece of drivel which had been written years before and which no established publisher or editor would publish.
A.Vassallo
Mar 19th 2011, 12:03
And sent to prison and perhaps executed!! Its just an article..if you dont like it or agree with it, you dont have to make a fuss! just dont read it!
Franco Farrugia
Mar 19th 2011, 10:59
With all due respect, in my opinion, nobody in the article has hit the nail on the head. The only problem was the way the Rector reacted to the article. Unless a University Rector is approachable and open to young people under his care, you couldn't have expected a better reaction than that. A University Rector should have at his side at least one assistant who is pedagogical, who knows the ways of young people and can address them comfortably. I do believe that the present Rector DOES have someone who fits this description but I suspect that the decision to inform the Police was taken quickly and without consultation. This would have been a storm in a teacup had it not have potentially serious consequences.
I also happen to agree with the comment by Mr Vella Gera regarding the KSU.
Ray Vella
Mar 19th 2011, 10:30
Here we go again, kicking up a fuss over a piece of stray note-paper with the ramblings of a pubescent and a miscreant. There would be quite a handful of these in the third forms of secondary schools and heads deal with them effectively by making them call at their office or calling their parents at the most. Most of them duly grow out of this stage and turn out to be straight characters nonetheless. In some, this phase apparently lingers on and goes up to their heads making them think that a hyper-activated libido is actually a literary muse. I don’t blame Prof. Camilleri for feeling irritated, especially when he doesn’t get much opportunity to handle genuine high flying academia from where he stands, but he should have reached for the vomit bag not for the phone. It is enough for Vella Gera and Camilleri to have gained plaudits during some kind of book-fair, what do they expect now, the Booker Prize?
Andy Farrugia
Mar 19th 2011, 11:25
Excellently put. As for AVG and MC, they will continue to milk the cheap and free publicity for all it's worth. Reminds me of the way people bereft of real talent, such as Paris Hilton, manage to become celebrities through shock tactics. Ridiculous.
B. Brincat
Mar 19th 2011, 10:21
The absence of clearly defined boundaries in the legislation was and still is open to interpretation, and clearly shows that the Rector did the right thing in reporting the matter. His position is one of great responsibility and accountability, and his inaction could have landed him in hot water. No he should not apologise. It is our lawmakers who should apologise, for giving us ambiguous laws.
Franco Farrugia
Mar 19th 2011, 11:03
No, the Rector did not do the right thing, in my opinion. He should have called the young people in his office and trashed things out with them over coffee. THAT, and only THAT, was the way to do things. That is the way one treats with young people. A Rector does NOT call in the Police on campus and call to book his own students! Failing that, he should have immediately delegated one of his pro-rectors to see into the matter. But NOT calling in the Police.
M Pisani
Mar 19th 2011, 11:54
that is exactly why you're not university rector franco!!
Alex Ellul
Mar 19th 2011, 10:16
This is all hypocricy at it's worst. So it's blood that the authors want and not freedom of expression. Shame on them. If they have the least measure of respect, they would have just been happy with the landmark decision. That would have made then great men, but wanting blood, that makes them social vampired.
Vincent Galea
Mar 19th 2011, 10:00
Most people feel that freedom of expression is great for themselves and with whom they agree.The real point of freedom of expression is even to protect even those kinds of speech we would not rather listen to.and the views we find stupid, offensive or reprehensible.
A self evident value that I see any reason to defend.
Who, after all, would want to take it away ?
M Muscat
Mar 19th 2011, 09:54
This court decision is being celebrated by authors and editors as a major win against censorship. By the way...editors are people who practice censorship. They decide the news value...whether to publish an article/letter or not....etc, etc, etc. And this is taking place on a daily basis! Is this not another form of censorship? ...double standards? Please explain.
Mark Jones
Mar 19th 2011, 10:35
There is a world of difference between censorship and editing. Think about the practical issues that influence an editor's decision - for example, the available space: I'm sure the editor of The Times has had to be selective about which letters to publish on contentious subjects like divorce, otherwise the newspaper would double in size on some occasions. There are legal considerations: is the story libellous? And commercial ones: Which headline story is going to sell more copies?
Alex Vella Gera
Mar 19th 2011, 09:52
Just to clarify that I never called for the rector to resign or make an apology. That was Mark Camilleri, which is natural and to be expected seeing how he is so heavily involved in student politics. I for one see no reason for the rector to resign. On the other hand, I do believe the opportunistic and cowardly KSU should apologise to Mark Camilleri, after having sat on the fence (and worse) throughout the whole Li Tkisser Sewwi debacle.
Mario Bartolo
Mar 19th 2011, 10:37
Mark Camilleri is heavily involved in student politics?! Since when?! I have never seen him do/say/organize anything on campus apart from receiving a trashing from Minister George Pullicino when he attempted to ridicule a debate for his own intents and purposes...
I suggest you keep to what you do (or at least try to do) best Alex Vella Gera...
Kenneth Spiteri
Mar 19th 2011, 10:56
Totally agree... hope to see more articles like li Tkisser sewwi and hope to see less hypocrisy in this country of ours...
Robert Callus
Mar 19th 2011, 09:45
The council said any “directly or indirectly” discriminatory text was “simply reinforcing the ingrained culture that women, rather than being free, independent thinkers on equal footing with men, are simply sex objects”.
This argument doesn't hold for the "Li Tkisser Sewwi" story for the simple reason that it's a parody. It's actually the other way round:
http://maltagreenyouth.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/realta-sexism-borat-and-racism/
N.Grima
Mar 19th 2011, 09:35
Our university needs to grow up. Universities are meant to push barriers. Regardless of whether the story ought or not to have been published, no university worth its salt would ever do what the rector did. Case in point - when allegations were made against Mark Zuckerberg that he stole the idea of Facebook from a third-party project he was supposedly working on, the Harvard rector told the students that if they felt so aggrieved, they should sue the guy THEMSELVES and not drag the university into it.
L Vella
Mar 19th 2011, 10:59
I've got a better idea N Grima. Why don't we do away with a rector altogether and let our 'liberated' and 'open-minded' university students run the university themselves. Better still, since they are so knowledgeable, we can send all the lecturers to green pastures and the students can lecture each other!
James De Giorgio
Mar 19th 2011, 13:17
Universities are meant to push barriers?? Says who?
That article was an insult to whoever read it. No one reads a lefty student paper expecting to find the string of obscene words, lewd language and crass that was found in that article!