The political hype mounted by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil and his shadow minister for justice, Jason Azzopardi, on the libel case instituted by a private citizen, the former commissioner of police, Peter Paul Zammit, against Azzopardi, must have surprised and even  brought a chuckle to first-year students of the law course at the University.

Busuttil went as far as to accuse the Labour government of “an attack on democracy”, “a threat to freedom of expression” and of “wanting to gag the Opposition”.

Azzopardi added that this libel action is intended by the government “to intimidate” him, adding that he “will never surrender”.

Surreal stuff.

It has been said there are about 190 libel cases being heard, a good number of which being criminal libel proceedings against Labour MPs, officials, journalists etc.

Never had such libel actions been considered by anyone as a “threat to democracy”, “intended to gag the Opposition “ or “a threat to freedom of expression” because such libel actions have always been a part of our legal system, intended to protect individuals, whoever they may be, from defamation in public.

As if that were not enough, Busuttil again upped the ante by involving the chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, Manfredd Webber, who, quite obviously, repeated the same accusations that had been passed on to him by the Nationalist MEPs without checking their veracity.

It seems Busuttil doesn’t really care if damage is caused to Malta’s name in Europe as long as he believes this will suit him and his party. This is why many, even genuine Nationalist supporters,  believe that this man is not fit for purpose to lead a serious Opposition.