I vividly remember Black Monday. On October 15, 1979, the Progress Press (publisher of this paper) was burnt down while the home of Eddie Fenech Adami, then Leader of the Opposition, and PN clubs were ransacked by the privileged and protected criminal supporters of the Labour government.
The Times was one of the beacons of freedom and democracy in those difficult days. Criticism was then considered to be tixwix (incitement), and those ‘guilty’ would have the tag ‘traitor’ attached to their name.
The Times was not afraid. It soldiered on, defying all threats and opposition. It paid the ultimate price. But although the press was burnt down, its indomitable journalists managed to edit and publish it on the following day. That copy is today an important document, witnessing the struggle for freedom and democracy in the dark years of the late 1970s and most of the 1980s.
Events like Black Monday helped galvanise people to fight for democracy. Physical violence against politicians, critics, private people and journalists at first instils fear. But its continuous perpetration begets defiance and resistance. There were so many such incidents that people realised that even they were being threatened although they were not the direct target of violent attacks.
Quite naturally it is easier to fire up opposition to physical violence as its effects are immediately visible to all. Photos impress people like nothing else does. The photo of a women, her nose bleeding, on the outskirts of Żejtun, a police officer throwing stones at demonstrators in Valletta, an injured Guido Demarco, police firing tear gas, clubs burnt down, the hurt but determined face of Mary Fenech Adami following the attack on her family, and so many other photos remain stuck in people’s hearts.
But most of all, the photo of the corpse of Raymond Caruana drowned in blood – a young man martyred by the criminal clique protected by the regime and its police force – still haunts us.
These are pictures of the past, and every decent Maltese believes and hopes they will remain just that: pictures of an ugly past.
We had also all believed and hoped that threats against freedom of expression were things of the past. But we are unfortunately experiencing facts that are frustrating these hopes. The latest example of an attack on freedom of expression is the decision of Minister Chris Cardona and his consultant Joe Gerada to ask the court to issue a garnishee order freezing €46,000 of the assets of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia pending the result of four (so far) libel cases they have filed against her.
This is not an attack against Daphne Caruana Galizia. This is a vile attack against all those who dare say anything that displeases the government
Cardona and Gerada have every right to take Caruana Galizia to court if they feel offended by her revelations about what is now known as brothelgate. But the unprecedented request for her assets to be frozen is simply not on for anyone with even a minuscule appreciation of the meaning of freedom of expression and liberty of the press.
This is not an attack against Daphne Caruana Galizia. This is a vile attack against all those who dare say anything that displeases the government.
The core of the issue is that a Cabinet Minister and the deputy leader of Malta’s largest political party is abusing our legal system to punish a journalist years before she is found guilty of doing anything wrong. Imagine the much bigger offence if she is found to be innocent, as many believe she will. Cardona’s highhanded attitude is a warning sign to all government critics: shut up or pay up.
Cardona’s abuse of the justice system means that now every journalist, blogger, commentator or letter writer – in short, anyone who expresses an opinion critical of the government – is liable to have his or her assets frozen for years if any Cabinet minister decides to file for libel, even on the most stupid reason possible. Please remember that a previous deputy leader of the Labour Party filed for libel because he was called a clown!
Freedom of expression has been threatened in other ways during the past three years. Let me just list some of the incidents I remember.
Journalist Norman Vella was arrested by the police because he allegedly took photos of the head of government communications at the Office of the Prime Minister when the latter was in a public place. It was so clear that this action was vindictive and capricious that the court decreed that there was no reasonable suspicion justifying the arrest.
Minister Konrad Mizzi, through his lawyer, asked the court to declare that Caruana Galizia is not a journalist and consequently should be forced to reveal her sources or possibly face prison. The court threw out the request, thus declaring Caruana Galizia to be a journalist.
Former parliamentary secretary Michael Falzon wanted the Speaker to investigate who allegedly leaked to the Times of Malta the report of the Auditor General about the Falzon/Gaffarena scandal. This attempt fizzled out when the Speaker said that there were no sources to ferret out.
Pro-government media on several occasions are reverting to the old habit of the 1980s and are describing criticism as tixwix.
Although government promised to abolish criminal libel, one of its persons of trust, who it is being said landed himself another plum job, instituted criminal libel procedures against the editor of The Malta Independent on Sunday.
It seems that many on the government side do not appreciate what Scottish campaigner Jimmy Reid used to say: “The task of the media in a democracy is not to ease the path of those who govern, but to make life difficult for them by constant vigilance as to how they exercise the power they only hold in trust from the people.”
The government’s latest attack against free speech is a step far too far. Journalists and people who love free speech either hang together or they will be hanged one by one.
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt