What’s God gotta do, gotta do, with it?

So let me get this straight... in this country, where we brag about being modern, European and free, a writer and an editor catering exclusively for a mature audience, can get prosecuted for publishing what most would consider obscene and pornographic.

They then get a five minute hearing in court, and two years later they are acquitted of all charges – a verdict based not on the fact that mature adults should be allowed to read whatever they want (as they already do over the Internet) but because the law is not clear cut in its definition of ‘pornographic’ and ‘obscene’.

The magistrate, who by the way happened to be female, (which is only relevant given that the story line in question happened to be about a sex-driven Maltese man who objectified women and treated them like rubbish), rose above what she could have interpreted as a personal attack against her gender and acquitted the accused because ‘pornography’ and ‘obscenity’ are subject to interpretation. She also pointed out that morality changes over time, especially over a period of 20 or 30 years, and that the story was aimed at discerning adults.

Given my ingrained cynicism towards our justice system, I have to say that I found this judgement very commendable.

Alas, taxpayers' money are to be used on an appeal.

The case goes back to 2009, when Mark Camilleri and Alex Vella Gera were separately charged with publishing and distributing pornographic and obscene material in the form of a short story titled ‘Li Tkisser Sewwi’, published in the student newspaper Ir-Realtà.

“He was free to write what he wanted without self-censorship,” said the Attorney General in the appeal. “But the author must realize there are others living with him, whose ideas, preferences and tastes are unlike his; a society that must be protected, and its morality preserved.

How is that being free to write whatever you want? If I had to bother with what the ones around me prefer to read, and what their tastes might be, I wouldn’t be writing this now would I?

I am fully aware that there’s a great number of people who generally disagree with what I write, and would rather have my fingers chopped off than to let me type another word, but that’s the whole point of living in a supposedly free society - that they can’t chop my fingers off, as much as I can’t stop them from commenting and calling me names.

The AG also went on to argue that “... there’s God above everything and above everyone, and God is certainly bigger than the biggest of egos of even more famous writers.”

What a contradiction!

If the AG truly believes this then he should have saved us all a buck or two, and let God judge Camilleri and Vella. Let them face God alone, when their hour of divine judgement arrives. Surely God doesn’t need a prosecutor to help him decide right?

Or does He?

If He does, then I surely hope that the witnesses brought forward by the defence - Lino Spiteri, Profs. Kenneth Wain, Albert Gatt, Ranier Fsadni, Maria Grech Ganado, Adrian Grima and Toni Attard - would also be present during God’s judgement, because I’m pretty sure that God would understand that there are no experts in these matters and that an informed subjective opinion is all He’s ever going to get.

Whilst I personally hated the piece and squirmed in disgust by the end of it, I understand that the story is an attempt at exposing an existing misogynistic mentality and was not in any way written to defend or support this way of life or thinking. Perhaps the publication's page design should have made the content more explicitly clear from the onset so that those who did not want to read it wouldn’t have, but to prosecute the editor and writer with criminal charges that could translate into a prison term of up to six months and/or a fine of up to €465.87, is to say the least, ridiculous.

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