Malta's political landscape has been illuminated by an unusual volume of pyrotechnics, originating from the media and the worldwide web throughout the month of June - all of it sparked off by a parliamentary question I addressed to the Minister of Justice. I merely asked whether any action would be taken against hotels and cable television that made money from pornographic TV channels. In his written reply, the minister said that the police would investigate the matter. Apparently, so far nothing has changed, even though the law is clearly being broken.

I was instantly interviewed by the media. A reporter from The Times wanted me to elaborate my views. I made the point that pornography was degrading and unhealthy for society and that hotels that offered pornography on TV in their rooms should be treated no differently than the porn cinema in Valletta which had been shut down a year ago, after 30 years or so in operation a few metres away from the law courts. My viewpoint was reported faithfully but the reporter subordinated it to other comments which arose in the course of the same interview.

In fact, his report had a lead, front-page heading which read: I'd Rather Live In Iran - Labour MP. It was taken up in the blogs and lapped up by people who had political, business and other interests to grind.

I hasten to add that an appreciable number of upright citizens have since decided to stand up and be counted and to support my rallying cry against the rising tide of moral degradation. More people are seeing with their own eyes the breakdown of family life, the rapid increase in the number of single mothers and the havoc that flows from permissiveness - all in the name of twisted democratic concepts.

As it happens, the same reporter has just confirmed what goes on in strip clubs, under the noses of the forces of law and order, and the associated social disorder that flows from the ravenous greed of unscrupulous business interests. He did so in the June issue of Pink, a magazine published by The Times.

I recall raising this matter in Parliament in 2006. The forces of law and order slumbered on and the strip clubs have since mushroomed and graduated to the status of "Gentlemen's Clubs" and there is now a "Ladies Club".

Taken in the mass, this is a social issue as much as it is a moral issue. It is an economic issue because it eats away at the sinews of society and good social order. Above all, it is a political issue. The ball is at the feet of parliamentarians who have been entrusted by the electorate to "bear true faith and allegiance to the People and the Republic of Malta and its Constitution".

For my part, I have a clear conscience in that I have repeatedly called attention, in the House and in the media, to the steady process of social degradation, as the forces of permissiveness make steady headway. My heart goes out for the victims who are being exploited in the process and all those who are trying to rescue their future from the wreckage of broken homes.

While I thank all those who have given voice to the electorate's aspirations for a clean moral environment, I appeal for the open support of those in positions of authority in the Church, the professions and constituted bodies who have, so far, been rather conspicuous by their silence.