Culture Minister Mario de Marco, who this month moved to eradicate theatre censorship, responded to calls to update obscenity laws saying the law may not be to blame for infamous cases like that of student newspaper Realtà.
Dr de Marco said the new cinema and theatre regulations helped strengthen artistic expression, marking the start of a process of reflection that could lead to more legal changes.
He noted that pornography and obscenity regulations already make a specific exception for art and literature, adding that an article should not be considered pornographic or obscene if it promoted science, literature or art.
Student newspaper Realtà was banned in 2009 because it contained a very explicit piece of prose. The police filed charges against its editor, Mark Camilleri, and the author of the piece, Alex Vella Gera.
Though they were acquitted by the Criminal Court the Attorney General appealed and a decision is expected next month.
The Labour Party has called for an update of the obscenity laws under which Mr Camilleri and Mr Vella Gera had been charged. The law defines obscenity and pornography. Such definitions were last updated in 1975. Two years ago, then Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said he would convene a parliamentary committee to discuss and update the law but the committee has not met so far.
Dr de Marco insists that the problem does not only lie in the task of drafting definitions but also in the better appreciation of what is literature and art and whether literature and art should know boundaries.
The Magistrates’ Court’s judgement in the Realtà case could serve to indicate that the issue in this particular case may lie not so much with the law but, rather, with the application of the law.
“I believe we have a lot to learn from the Realtà case and how it was handled,” he said. “There will always be instances of works that challenge the boundaries of art and literature, if boundaries there are.
“While the need to protect vulnerable groups is obviously important, it must be equally understood that it is healthy and necessary in any maturing society to have such challenges by artists and writers who seek to provoke thought and a different approach to the way society looks upon issues.”
He added that changes in people’s perception and evaluation of art were directly linked to society’s own development.
“These are the conditions that need to be assessed or debated in the context of the current obscenity laws, possibly leading to their reassessment and reinterpretation in the spirit of a more mature society,” he said.
The Front Against Censorship welcomed the theatre censorship reform but suggested a change in the proposed law so that films too cannot be censored.