Politicians welcome carnival satire surprise

Politicians from both sides have welcomed the surprising news that political satire was never really banned by Maltese law despite an 80-year-old myth.

Culture Minister Mario de Marco on Monday said the Attorney General’s office researched the law only to find there was none preventing political satire during carnival, as had long been believed.

Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea, who writes a weekly satirical column on In-Nazzjon and had raised the carnival issue during a memorable episode of the television programme Xarabank in 2007, said he was elated.

“It’s good to know I was not breaking the law because I’ve been making fun of politicians for a while. But I too was a victim of this false perception, thinking political satire was banned in carnival.”

Mr Galea had even raised the issue in Parliament.

“I hope we will start to see political satire because people really enjoy seeing politicians as normal people who fool about and can laugh at themselves. We shouldn’t take politics too seriously,” he said. “I’ll only be offended if no one makes fun of me.”

Former Culture Minister Francis Zammit Dimech, who in his time had often faced the dilemma of whether or not to introduce political satire, said he had been told it was banned.

“People must have remembered the point in history when it was banned and everyone assumed it was never unbanned. In fact, it wasn’t. The original ban had just expired. But no one had ever told me.”

The original ban, introduced by a police notice in 1935, which had stopped being republished, specifically banned satire about foreign political issues, but along the years this was interpreted as being all political issues. Dr Zammit Dimech said he was often made fun of during pantomimes, which he attends willingly.

“I’m more offended when I’m not mentioned,” he said, adding, however, that satire should respect good taste and balance.

On the other hand, Labour’s culture spokesman Owen Bonnici said he was not surprised by Dr de Marco’s announcement because he had searched for the law almost two years ago and never found it.

“But I thought there could be an old legal notice that was never published online for some reason.”

Asked whether this settled the matter of carnival regulations, he said the law still contained restrictions on religious satire but he did not see any scope for revision.

“I think the regulations are fine as they are,” he said, adding he looked forward to a good laugh next year.

Former Prime Minister Alfred Sant, who had once said he did not feel the Maltese were prepared for political satire, also welcomed the news.

“[When I was Prime Minister] I have never gone into detail on this subject but I had been briefed there was a law preventing political satire.”

There was a time when political tensions in the country justified such censorship, Dr Sant said, referring specifically to the 1960s and 1980s.

“Even in the late 1990s I thought it was premature, even though I felt the laws could be relaxed within four or five years. Nowadays, I don’t think it will be aproblem.” Dr Sant said politics was becoming less popular with more entertaining distractions in society, so politicians were likely to enjoy the satire.

“Politicians are craving the spotlight because they are losing some of it. Any publicity will be good publicity,” he added.