Malta’s special envoy to the World Tourism Organisation, Joe Grima, yesterday accused this newspaper of trying to put people close to the government in a bad light, after it highlighted his latest anti-migration statement.
In a post uploaded on his Facebook wall, Mr Grima had commented that “Malta’s President has consigned her presidency to absolute and total irrelevance when she speaks about immigration and integration of the Maltese with African, and Eastern European immigrants”.
The report in Times of Malta also quoted a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office saying that Mr Grima had expressed his personal opinion. He refused to condemn his remarks.
Attempts to contact the former tourism minister over his outburst against President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca proved futile.
However, Mr Grima yesterday reacted on his Facebook wall, accusing this newspaper “and its gang of Nationalist bedfellows” of doing their utmost to put in a bad light all those associated with the government and who were considered valid.
He said the Times wanted these people to live like sheep, hidden and silent, afraid they might be mentioned in their paper and lose “who knows what the paper thought they might lose”.
I was never a sheep and I will not start being one today
Mr Grima said he was currently focused on his work as Malta’s special envoy to the WTO and vowed to carry on working for those who showed confidence in his abilities.
“I was never a sheep and I will not start being one today,” he said.
Mr Grima’s partner, Lynn Zahra, later contacted this newspaper to clarify that his anti-integration stance did not imply that he was in favour of letting migrants die at sea.
Mr Grima is not new to controversy, especially on migration. A few days ago he accused NGOs of making money out of the migration crisis, following another report in this paper on how African journalists in Malta were setting up a new NGO to use their professional skills to help migrants integrate.
Mr Grima had once described human rights NGO Aditus Foundation as “cultural rapists”.
In August 2012, a rant against a priest who had written a critical obituary on former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff, in The Catholic Herald, had forced him to resign as the host of a show on the Labour television station.
“Unimpressed and hugely disappointed” by the government’s response to Mr Grima’s latest remarks against the President, the chairman of the National Book Council Mark Camilleri yesterday announced he had written to the WTO requesting the expulsion of Mr Grima.
“If Prime Minister Joseph Muscat does not know how to perform his duty well, we will do it for him,” he said on his Facebook wall, while urging others to follow his example.
Meanwhile, questions were also raised over whether Mr Grima’s remarks could land him in hot water with respect to a law which states that whoever is found guilty of contempt of the President could be liable to a fine or imprisonment.
Article 72 of the Criminal Code states that: “Whosoever shall use any defamatory, insulting or disparaging words, acts or gestures in contempt of the person of the President of Malta, or shall censure or disrespectfully mention or represent the said President, by words, signs or visible representations, or by any other means not provided for in the law relating to the Press, shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment for a term from one to three months or to a fine.”