A Constitutional Court yesterday upheld a decision by the Broadcasting Authority to ban the airing of an interview given by the Cana Movement founder, Mgr Charles Vella in which he said the introduction of divorce did not scare him.
The authority had banned the pro-divorce movement from using the spots in its campaign after it received a complaint from Mgr Vella saying he had not given his consent for his interview to be used in this manner.
The Constitutional case was filed by the pro-divorce movement, which argued that Mgr Vella was a public figure and that the interview he had given to Norman Hamilton’s programme Bla Aġenda on One TV was in the public domain as it was readily available over the internet.
However, in his judgment, Mr Justice Joseph Zammit McKeon said Mgr Vella was right to complain because his interview was being attributed to a campaign.
He ruled that Mgr Vella’s comments on the divorce issue were being used for propaganda. The comments had been given before the Private Member’s Bill was presented in Parliament, before the referendum date had been decided and before the Broadcasting Authority sanctioned the propaganda scheme spots.
The court declared that while the clip was “not doctored”, Mgr Vella’s comments were not meant to be used by one movement against another and that the Cana founder’s permission was needed for the pro-divorce movement to use the footage.
The court also noted that Mgr Vella had not retracted what he had said in the interview – that he was not scared of the introduction of divorce because the Maltese family was strong and because of his belief in the sanctity and indissolubility of marriage.
Reacting to the judgment, a shocked pro-divorce movement said the judgment will have “serious implications”.
Chairman Deborah Schembri said it had set an “ugly precedent” that would impact the everyday running of TV stations when they needed to broadcast clips from other stations without their consent.
Dr Schembri said she would continue to insist that consent was not needed since the footage was already in the public domain. However, the movement decided not to appeal the judgment because of time constraints before Saturday’s referendum.
Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando said the political parties now had to deal with a “Pandora’s Box” because of this judgment.
Labour MP Evarist Bartolo, who is also head of news of One Productions, owned by the Labour Party said it was normal practice for TV stations to take clips from other stations without seeking the permission of the person who appeared on the clip.
In a separate statement, the anti-divorce movement expressed satisfaction at the ruling, saying it confirmed that the pro-divorce camp was trying to give the impression that Mgr Vella, as a founder of the Church’s Cana Movement which prepared couples for marriage, was in favour of the introduction of divorce.