Social media comments by a staff member of the Prime Minister’s Office were not “desirable” but should not be regarded as the government’s position, the Times of Malta was told.
Josef Caruana, who left his job as editor of the General Workers’ Union’s daily L-Orizzont last July to join a unit handling parliamentary questions to the Prime Minister, urged his followers on Twitter and Facebook to sign a petition calling for the removal of Archbishop Charles Scicluna.
The initiative came after Mgr Scicluna retweeted an article by The Shift News comparing clientelism in Malta to that in places such as Naples. The article also highlighted the state of dependency that long plagued the country as politicians secured votes by currying favours.
Josef Caruana"Josef Caruana shared a post created by someone else. It is not something that is desirable. However, a Facebook share, as much as a retweet, by an employee at OPM cannot be construed as the government’s position," a spokesman for the OPM said.
No reply was forthcoming when asked whether any disciplinary action would be taken against Mr Caruana.
During his time as editor, the GWU daily often carried hard-hitting editorials, with the Nationalist Party, the Church and independent media journalists ending up in its line of fire.
At one time, the union had dissociated itself from Mr Caruana's editorials, shortly after Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had said he did not agree with the language used.
Meanwhile, reacting to criticism levelled against the Archbishop following his retweet of the article, a Curia spokesman said Mgr Scicluna distinguished between the tweets he writes himself and the retweets of articles written by others, “the content of which should evoke mature discussion which, beyond partisan politics, seeks the best interest of Maltese society”.
“The Archbishop invites all to respect the freedom of journalists to criticise the political system and appeals for a healthy sense of state which leads to the common good being given priority in every decision,” the spokesman said.