Senior university lecturer Manwel Mifsud expects Archbishop Charles Scicluna to apologise for his “irresponsible behaviour” following comments he made on national TV.
In an article on Times of Malta, Prof. Mifsud refers to comments by Mgr Scicluna on TVM’s Dissett. The Archbishop said a university professor – whom he did not name – had turned his last programme on the Church’s radio station, RTK, into a “moaning party”
The Archbishop also said that such behaviour was not becoming of a university professor.
Mgr Scicluna was commenting about the recent reform at the Church’s Media Centre.
In his article, Prof. Mifsud says the new management decided to move the weekly programme Seħer il-Malti, which he presented with Thomas Pace, from an ideal slot on Saturday at lunchtime and to reduce it by half.
“We neither could nor would accept the new conditions, since they were clearly a demotion of both the programme and the importance given to the Maltese language on the station,” he says.
Appeals have been made on Facebook for the Church’s radio station to reconsider its decision to move the show.
In a strongly worded reaction, Prof. Mifsud asks whether it was appropriate to “denigrate” listeners expressing opinions by calling their expression of disappointment a “moaning party”.
“What right does the Archbishop have to spread this injurious opinion about me without even knowing me and without any shred of evidence, and to accuse me of behaving in a way that is unworthy of a university professor, thus harming me professionally?
“Or is it the case that any means of insolence becomes justifiable if someone does not agree with him?
How seriously can we take him when he preaches against hate speech?” Prof. Mifsud asks.
He declares that he expects a public apology from the Archbishop “for his irresponsible and unworthy behaviour that measures up to the offence I had to suffer in his hands, since everybody has the right to defend one’s personal dignity”.
If the Archbishop cherished the humility and honesty he always talks about, it should not be difficult for him to make up for publicly harming Prof. Mifsud and his radio programme listeners, the latter adds.
The Akkademja tal-Malti has written to the radio station to express its disappointment. It was a pity that the programme had suddenly been halted, it said.
Seħer il-Malti proved that the Maltese language was not only alive and still evolving but also served as a pillar for our identity, it added.