Criminal defamation in Egypt makes the news in Malta – even though the same thing is happening here
In Egypt, two journalists who critcised President Morsi are to stand trial for criminal defamation. The case has made the world news after being reported by Reuters and other news agencies this morning.
This is because true democracies understand the implications of having politicians use the police/criminal defamation trials against journalists who criticise them.
If a politician truly feels aggrieved and thinks something is libellous, he shouldn’t resort to the police, but file a civil suit. The implications of using the police go way beyond the attainment of justice.
I just cannot understand why so many people fail to grasp this in Malta, even as they po-facedly note the fact that whenever there are criminal defamation suits instigated by politicians against journalists, in places with oppressive regimes where democracy and freedom of speech are under threat, the news agencies report them and they make the international headlines.
Are any statistics kept in Malta on the numbers of cases involving politicians using the police to go after journalists?
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20130520/world/Egyptian-journalists-critical-of-Morsi-face-trial.470500
Dear Maltese Tellectuals,
My European brothers and sisters,
Comrades, l-Ahwa!
Have I got happy news for you!
The US State Department – no less! – eager to measure the Maltese administration’s response-readiness to US efforts in North Africa and the Middle East, has asked its European affairs bureau to dispatch a deputy assistant to debrief our foreign minister.
Our foreign minister’s performance was far from a dog’s dinner, l-ahwa! Reflecting the views of his arch-minister, EU foreign and security chief Baroness Ashton, he expressed concern over both regions, especially EU-sanctioned Syria, where he really, really hoped for the best, so things can improve for the better, so people will be happy and happier, and not sad and sadder…
No word on whether he expressed gratitude for the destabilisation of the infamous Syrian secularist regime in favour of freedom-fighting Islamists, shaped by the West into fully-armed hero rebels fighting for a Syria free of secularism and other non-muslim influences and beliefs.
Our foreign minister was also asked what he thought about the great Libyan feat, characterised by Libya’s rapid rise from a secular anti-Western functioning dictatorship to an Islamic anti-Western dysfunctional oligarchy.
So sensitively insightful were our foreign minister’s views on Libya they were treated with utmost confidentiality; as were his views on the situation in Tunisia, where extremists are on a Spring spree, and Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood’s backstage elite – old friends of the Soros Spring Foundation – are leading the fully democratic Islamist regime into a formidable double role in the creation of further division and conflict where peace would never have otherwise reigned again for a while anyway-so-what-the-heck!
Finally, in a solemn gesture of prescribed timelessness, our foreign minister renewed the 1970s noble mantra against Israeli settlements on occupied land, underlining the perpetuity of a decades-old crisis justifiably made worse towards a blisfully happy ending to a never-ending centuries-old trifecta-crusade that was otherwise long dead, but for its timely resurrection towards global peace and unity that follow great wars and strife.
Here, Comrades, is the full and official final draft of the all-in-a-day’s-work report by the Salvu Today news dispenser:
http://maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Malta-and-US-discuss-Mediterranean-region-20130518
And remember: a diehes a day keeps the doctor on pay.
Your ‘erudite’ dribble is not worthy of a comment.