Saturday, 7th November 2009
Police likely to arraign student editor
Mark Camilleri
A 21-year-old history student is likely to be arraigned for publishing a crude short story in Maltese dealing with adult themes of sexual violence in a newspaper that was subsequently banned at the University.
Mark Camilleri, editor of Realtà, was on Thursday interviewed by the police who told him they would probably be pursuing the case in court. The police did not tell him what charges would be brought against him but pointed out that it was illegal to publish obscenities, he said yesterday.
Mr Camilleri said he would probably go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights if it came to that because this was a violation of fundamental human rights and he intended to use all legal means possible to make his point.
The police at first denied that Mr Camilleri had been "interrogated" by them and even that he had been told by the police inspector that he was likely to be arraigned.
After being confronted with Mr Camilleri's version of events, they, however, accepted that he was summoned to the police station briefly and told he would probably be arraigned.
The fictional short-story was written by Alex Vella Gera, a 36-year-old author who lives in Brussels and has already had two novels published.
University Rector Juanito Camilleri filed a police report about the small bilingual student newspaper, which is known for its radical left-wing stand, after the story was brought to his attention by University Chaplain Michael Bugeja.
Mr Vella Gera said he chose to have the story published at University because he expected that the readers would be mature and intelligent enough to get the message behind the story: the pathetic mentality of some men who see women as objects.
Press bodies slam ban
The Institute of Maltese Journalists (IĠM), the Journalists' Committee and the Malta Youth Press have come out against the ban.
The Journalists' Committee said the ban revealed "the confessional shift in Maltese politics" because the police were being made to intervene on "offensive" literature despite the fact that freedom of expression included the freedom to offend.
"If Realtà's editor and the author of the short story are charged in court, this will be a blow for freedom of expression in Malta."
A spokesman for the Journalists' Committee said that if the University rector believed "obscene" material should not be read by University students this was a "patronising" attitude that the Education Minister should be looking into. "At this rate, why not ban Bret Easton Ellis and Irvine Welsh books for the obscenities they write about?"
A spokesman for the Malta Youth Press, which is part of the IĠM, said there was no way the newspaper should have been banned or censored, especially since this was an independent publication and that the short story was literature, not news.
"I just think they should have put a disclaimer on the front page to warn about the language used. But, anyway, it shouldn't have been censored," Keith Demicoli, the president, said.
"We strongly believe that freedom of expression and speech should prevail," he said, adding "that being said, I am not keen on reading such literature and I find it low."
In its statement the University said that if the University authorities were told about the newspaper before it was distributed, they would have had the chance to check the legal implications and make necessary arrangements for the paper to be "made available in some other, less generalised, manner".
A warning should have been published on the front page of the paper saying that it contained adult material, the University said, arguing that the campus is also frequented by families and that at Junior College (where they said the paper was also distributed) the students are minors.
However, the newspaper editor Mark Camilleri argued that to his knowledge he was not legally bound to put such a warning because the University has a mature readership.
He also denied that the newspaper was officially distributed at Junior College. "But we could not stop people from doing so and have no responsibility in this regard."
The story comes in the wake of several other censorship controversies, including a banned play and a recent police request to a shop owner to clothe nude mannequins in his shop window that were part of an installation against sex trafficking.
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Comments
Dear Mr. Borg, I think you still haven’t understood what this baloney turmoil is all about. No one is defending anyone except his self rights. Everyone has the right to read whatever material he likes and whichever paper he chooses. If you are easily offended by such material I suggest you read other articles that deem right to you. I read the article myself and was not one bit appalled by it whatsoever.
I have passed that stage decades ago.
Having said that, I actually enjoy reading material in this style, it reflects the real language as spoken today by 99% of the Maltese. Everyone wants it banned because they don't like the words in writing however everyone uses this language in real life.
I'm reiterating that you obviously did not read this "article" otherwise you would not be defending it.
I might say that; even though the article may be considered as offensive or repulsive it does not incite anybody to follow the example (of the narrator). It just narrates.... so it does not break any laws.
What i believe was so crucial for its banning is the harsh critique on the politicians in the first article and the cartoons to be found in it that probably where not liked by the big bosses (PN + PL) so the Gera article is just an excuse. Nobody wants any smart guy uncovering truths. And many on campus are ''lecca culi'' starting from top to bottom.
So let us see Mark Camilleri as a symbol of change and support him. No more sleeping time people WAKE UP and fight for whats yours
As for the rector's move, it seems like a poor excuse to bring in the Junior College students into the matter. That esteemed college refuse to allow posters of cultural events on its premises unless they are discos organised by the school authorities. They refuse to allow students out of class to experience cultural events outside the school premises during school hors, and best of all have done sweet FA to stop these same students from driniking and smoking themselves to death. But then again vulgar words are even more deadly. WTF!
@A Bugeja I can rest easy now that i know there are people like you who will surrender their rights so easily ,satisfied that this is the law. Actually it is n't and obscenity, like beauty is in the ye of the beholder
If our laws state that you cannot distribute material with an adult theme to persons under 18 years of age, then Mark Camilleri has to be arraigned. The Junior College and the University are places frequented by persons who are under 18, so prima facie, the case against this "editor" is pretty solid.
Sorry, but that's the rule of law. And it is wrong to use anti-censorship arguments as an excuse to break this paramount principle.
All this having been said, I doubt whether the Police should waste their time on this issue.
If this dirt that I have in front of me is the product of the 'intellectual emancipation' coming out of Tal-Qroqq, I think that all lecturers should resign immediately!
If, on the other hand, this group of words - of sheer and nonsensical vulgarity, without any style and without any possible message worth giving - 'depicts a shade of the Maltese way of life', then, we must be going through a very fine phase indeed, we Maltese! Not much to be proud of.
On another hand, if I had to be three-handed, I don't think, no, that I should offer my solidarity with this editor. Not because he is reputed to be editor-ing a left-wing newspaper - goodness knows we need some left-wing voice in Malta - but because he simply appears to have absolutely no idea how to attract would-be readers to his newspaper, other than using vulgarity in order to entice them in!
You may be right, but this means there a LITTLE change in the attitude so just fight the oppressors. Let us not us incite any more fighting ad unite for once in this damn country of apathy!
In the meantime I congratulate IGM and the Journalists' Committee and the Malta Youth Press for their courage and for defending the voice of the people.
Quo vadis Malta, l-ghaxar kmandamenti tac-censura jew??
A story in which the writer uses the narrator to ridicule the narrator's own perverted stance towards others cannot be compared to offensive and racist statements that the writer supports and that are meant to incite hate for others.
there is a difference between incitement of racial hatred and writing sexually explicit material, look up the law
He was given a 2 year sentence suspended for 4.
No newspaper, journalist or columnist uttered a word in his defence.
This is the Hypocrisy surrounding us.
Keep up the good work Mark.
Same goes for yesterdays's Xarabank programme.
Folks it seems that we are living in a state within a state.
We can only point ones finger at the church in malta for the lack of religious formation, a job not well done.
Story was banned as it was allegdly misogynist and vulgar. On the same page we read about a man who gets only 10 years for raping a 7 year old girl.
The Authorities should put their actions where their mouth is! (M Camilleri, Mosta)