The government is currently using the excuse of “cyberbullying” to introduce a draconian and authoritarian law that will see you jailed for two years and fined up to €30,000 for insulting people online. The law is being pushed by Edward Zammit Lewis, the Justice Minister who was caught conspiring in secret and defending Yorgen Fenech over his corrupt dealings with the government.
The law will be part of the criminal code so its intent is to criminalise free speech once again and re-introduce criminal libel which was removed by the Joseph Muscat administration in 2018. As of now the only Opposition Member of Parliament who voiced her opposition to this bill is Therese Comodini Cachia and I thank her for her position. We need more MPs in Parliament both in Labour and in the Nationalist camp to oppose this authoritarian law. I also encourage people to vote for Therese Comodini Cachia in the next election so as to support politicians who defend our right to free speech. Voting for these politicians will send the right message. Politicians who take a position against this authoritarian law will get my support and a shout-out from my blog. I also call the Nationalist Party to take an official position against this law and call out politicians who are threatening to curb our freedom of speech.
Here I show you an example of how these corrupt politicians will be using the cyber-bullying law against you. Rosianne Cutajar, apart from initiating a libel case against me, has also reported me to the police and filed charges for allegedly insulting her in public and online. The current law which she has used is the Media and Defamation Act and its clauses are equivalent to a contravention which means it doesn’t have a large or criminal punishment, but rather a small fine if found guilty. It is still an abuse of power to use this law against critics and dissidents small in punishment as it may be, but this government intends to re-interpret this concept of the Media and Defamation act into the criminal code and by default re-introducing criminal libel.
Unfortunately Therese Comodini Cachia will not be contesting this year’s election.
We are far from anything like the First Amendment where you could give the President the middle finger and it be still considered freedom of speech.