Public officers and civil servants could face up to five years in prison for creating or assuming leadership of racist groups once amendments are made to the Criminal Code, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said.
The amendments, which form part of a broad legislative review, will make it illegal for government officials and law enforcement officers, “under colour of their office”, to create or assume leadership of a “group” which promotes racial hatred.
Government sources said the move was prompted by inquiries which revealed that a number of officers and civil servants had publicly aired racist views through social media, raising concerns that these might abuse their position to promote a racist agenda.
Dr Bonnici would not comment on what prompted the amendments saying only that the law would bring Malta in line with the rest of the international community.
“These articles were introduced both as a national intuitive and in fulfilment of Malta’s international obligations under United Nations conventions on human rights.”
The amendment falls short of highlighting membership within such groups as being a crime.
Human rights lawyer Neil Falzon, however, explained that such a move could impinge on individual freedoms.
Welcoming the general direction of the amendment, Dr Falzon said he hoped the law would stop government officials from using their position to promote racism.
“The problem here is that if authorities are being racist, then this not only pushes migrants away from the State but also sends out the message that the State is condoning this view,” he said.
Inciting racial hatred and violence is already a crime with a maximum prison sentence of 18 months. Trivialising or condoning racial violence, on the other hand, could land you in prison for up to two years.
I hope that any reform will be top down as well as horizontal because this is a problem coming from all sides of government
The Public Administration Act puts forward guidelines for state employees to avoid racially sensitive discussions and the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality provides annual training sessions for public officers.
Integra director Maria Pisani, however, expressed doubts whether the amendments were enough.
“I have reservations as to how much effort is being made to combat the spread of racially discriminatory discourse. And, I hope that any reform will be top down as well as horizontal because this is a problem coming from all sides of government,” she said.
Last April, the Cyber Crimes Unit told this newspaper it was investigating a number of racially motivated crimes that were committed on social media.
Unit Head Timothy Zammit had explained that threatening a person over social media, was just as much a crime as doing it face-to-face.
“People seem to feel they can get away with crimes when done on social media. A crime in Malta is still a crime if it is done online. This is also true of racism,” he said.