The case of Magistrate Carol Peralta will start being discussed by the Commission for the Administration of Justice this week, according to President George Abela.
The magistrate is being investigated after he threw a party in his courtroom on Thursday afternoon, then ordered the arrest of a Times of Malta reporter who was assigned to look into what was happening.
That same evening Justice Parliamentary Secretary Owen Bonnici wrote to the President, in his capacity as commission chairman, to “urgently” investigate Dr Peralta’s alleged behaviour and take all the steps it deemed fit.
Dr Abela has since replied to Dr Bonnici’s letter and said all the commission members had been informed and they would be meeting this week.
The magistrate has remained defiant amid calls for his resignation from the Nationalist Party and Alternattiva Demokratika, on the back of a scathing condemnation by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Dr Bonnici who described his behaviour as “illegal and abusive”.
The Chamber of Advocates too said it unreservedly condemned Dr Peralta for throwing a party with drinks and unlawful smoking in his courtroom. This, it said, coupled with the reaction against the reporter who went to see what was happening, was unacceptable.
Dr Peralta remained unrepentant yesterday and said he would be asking the Press Ethics Commission to investigate the “possible abusive and illegal behaviour of a certain Ivan Martin, including whether he is really a journalist or not, as at no point did he present any form of identification”.
He would do this, he said, even though he knew full well that unfortunately, this commission was powerless to act in cases where the press broke the law.
Mr Martin, a full-time Times of Malta reporter, had attempted to take a photo of the party through the courtroom porthole before he was stopped by a court usher.
When he was there the court hall bore the remnants of a party with cigarette butts on the floor and alcohol spilled on the table that is usually used by defence lawyers. At one point the police even asked if there had been an altercation because the room was in such disarray.
Contacted over the phone yesterday afternoon, Dr Peralta also accused Times of Malta of misconstruing what he said during the press conference he had called at his home in Mdina on Friday.
I will be asking for the press laws to be revised to reflect the realities of a modern country in the EU
“You misquoted me when you reported what I said. I said the incident was insignificant, not the people’s outcry or the calls for my resignation as you’re alleging. Don’t argue with me please,” he said, when it was pointed out to him that this newspaper had a recording.
During the press conference, a Times of Malta journalist made the following statement to Dr Peralta: “Owen Bonnici asked the commission to investigate you; he described your decision to arrest the reporter as abusive and illegal; he expressed concern that you had a party in your courtroom... the Prime Minister described what happened as a farce and the PN is calling for your resignation... Is all this insignificant to you?”
To which Dr Peralta replied: “Yes, it’s insignificant.”
Just 24 hours later, Dr Peralta said he had been misinterpreted and insisted he would be releasing a press release to rebut all this.
In his statement, which was received by The Sunday Times of Malta at 9pm last night, Dr Peralta insisted the use of the word ‘insignificant’ had been blown out of proportion by “a particular section of the media that is an interested party, in that the case involved a person who allegedly works for the same media”.
While he disagreed with certain accusations made in his regard, he said he respected the allegations made by politicians and others, even though he strongly believed the suitable platform to determine these issues was the Commission for the Administration of Justice.
As he faces pressure from all quarters, Dr Peralta is pulling all the stops in his defence and in the coming days he said he will be writing to the Justice Parliamentary Secretary to protest against the existing Press Act.
The statement said Dr Peralta “will be asking for the press laws to be revised to reflect the realities of a modern country in the EU”.
To bolster his defence he also dug out a quote by the Chief Justice, reported in Times of Malta on June 8, 2012 where he said: “I refuse to cooperate with, and thereby encourage by answering your queries, the kind of deplorable sensation-seeking tabloid reporting which the Times of Malta has been resorting to as of late.”
Editor’s note:
We would like to invite Dr Peralta to confirm whether Ivan Martin is a reporter with Times of Malta by checking whether he holds a valid Department of Information press card.
With regard to his intention to write to the government to request a change in press laws to “reflect a modern country and in line with other EU states”, we only welcome his initiative since it would mean more freedom for the Maltese press.