Some Law Commissioner and Chief of Constitutional Reform we’ve got, who doesn’t even know that the Chamber of Advocates has no jurisdiction over journalists
The Law Commissioner and Chief of Constitutional Reform, in his other guise as a criminal lawyer, has put in a complaint about me with the Chamber of Advocates.
Lest you run away with the idea that I have been pursuing him with panting telephone calls and lurid suggestions straight out of a Madame Caruana novel (heaven forfend), what he complained about is the fact that I write about him.
Because, you know, that’s not allowed.
Now that he can no longer lay siege to the prime minister and all those around him, with demands that they shut me up or else he’ll use his single-seat-majority leverage, he is at a total loss where to lodge his complaints that I write about him.
So he has resorted to the Chamber of Advocates. Somebody should have mercy on the Law Commissioner and Chief of Constitutional Reform, and inform him that the Chamber of Advocates deals in advocates, not journalists. It is has no jurisdiction over me or any other journalist, and so be it.
Maybe he expects them to release a stiff statement ‘condemning’ me for writing about him. I suggest he does the work for which he is being paid by the government rather than dividing his time between messing around with his caged birds, drinking at Medasia and going to Sicily for lunch on Medasia-owner Joe Casha’s RHIB.
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From when you are calling yourself ‘a journalist’ because as far as I am concerned you always said you were a columnist and not a journalist.
[Daphne – A columnist is a journalist. I think you confuse ‘reporter’ with ‘journalist’. All reporters are journalists but not all journalists are reporters. Even somebody who writes about sport for newspapers and magazines is a journalist.]
Alfred, it’s supposed to go something line, “Since when do/have you……”
From when. Minn meta.
@ daphne
Where did you get this definition of a journalist because after a quick look at the press laws, it seems that the law does not give us a definition of a journalist.
[Daphne – I have worked in journalism for practically all of my adult life, so yes, I do know what a journalist is, and the definition of a journalist is not found in the press laws but in a dictionary. You’re not very bright, are you, Franco, making it so obvious who you are.]
I had a quick look at Ralph Lauren’s catalogues from the past ten years and I couldn’t find the definition of “pony shirt”.
Now I’m confused.
Definition of a real journalist: a real journalist is one who investigates stories and comes up with scoops every other day.
What would you call a journalist whose scoops are headlines on the media the next day they’re published?
Again with the B1 level English.
Alfred, when I hear the word journalist the first name that comes to my mind is definitely Daphne Caruana Galizia.
Dear Franco/Alfred Brincat,
Don’t you realise how pathetic you are?
You’re the most reviled, hated and ridiculed miserable git on this sorry excuse of a country. You’re the lowest scum among all the scumbags who we have to endure daily on the sorry excuse for a media establishment that we have.
You are the lowest scum there is except for the scum who gave you your scummy appointment in the hope he’d shut you up once he had used you like the scummy whore you are.
That scum is indeed lower than you on the scum scale, but the little you lack in scummyness to make it to the very bottom layer of the scum stack, you more than make up for in sheer stupidity.
I hope your mummy still loves you at least.
It is outrageous that he does not seem to understand that freedom of the press is part and parcel of a liberal democracy where public officers automatically expose themselves to scrutiny.
@ m. To be fair he was not complaining because he was being scrutinized but because in that article there was incitement of hate which is CONTRARY TO THE LAW.
[Daphne – What article? I write several posts a day and have no idea what you’re talking about. You have your laws confused, I’m afraid. And your incitement to hatred, too.]
@ daphne
The article rather the blog you wrote which he complained about to the chamber.
[Daphne – I think you need to lie down for a while, Franco.]
Mary Mifsud has changed her identity again. Shame she can’t change her mind completely. Franco needs it.
In my opinion, there is no incitement to hatred. Daphne just did her job as a journalist and gave us the facts. We have a right to know what is going on.
And Franco, respect must be earned. The things you have said and done in the last few years certainly do not inspire respect. Don’t blame Daphne. Just blame yourself. The way people treat you and think about you is the result of your own doings, nobody else’s.
What a joker. Franco you are so obvious. Go away or grow up.
It’s about time you started working on what you are being paid to do out of taxpayers’ money. Othwise you are no more than a common thief, err ehmm, cheat I mean.
“Incitement of hate?” Hardly. Ridicule, maybe. But public figures should expect this. If one can’t take it, maybe its time to get out of the kitchen.
Fred, Int wasallek il-him ghal medicina nahseb.
You forgot his market stall with Pony T shirts and his renting out the sunbeds. Poor boy, give him a break…….on a dinghy.
Moreover, I think he had a right to inform the chamber of advocates and seek protection because in that article you were not just stating facts but inciting hatre in his regard.
I am in favour of freedom of expression but one has to be cautious when writing certain things. Hope this message will be published.
[Daphne – Funny how when I write about Franco Debono I get a series of fixated remarks from strangers who seem particularly keen to defend him personally. Clearly, the Law Commissioner doesn’t know what ‘inciting hatred’ is.]
Where is all this incitement to hatred? A mere reporting of facts is not an incitement to hatred.
If you want to see what incitement to hatred, violence, prejudice, racism etc … you should just watch recordings of the speeches made by the Prime Minister in the push back case… before he started to try retreat and say that he didn’t mean what people rightly thought he meant.
If anything, with regards to Franco Debono, readers of this blog are incited to pity … pity that someone who apparently showed a bit of promise when younger threw everything away through a number of childish scenes and ill-considered decisions.
I think he is taking for incitement the fact that the more people know of his amorality and general worthlessness, people tend to “hate” his awful character.
Hear, hear.
To be honest, the only pity I feel is towards myself, and towards our collective selves, for having leaders like Frankie Tabone, Joseph Muscat, and the rest of the clowns.
What did we do to deserve this?
I find this most entertaining. “Inciting hatred”? Daphne against Franco Debono? Come on. Get a grip. No wonder Muscat got elected with such a landslide majority if people are so short-sighted.
With all due respect, Mr. Brincat, I think Franco Debono should file a complaint against himself because the only thing which made him the subject of contempt and ridicule over the years were his own deeds (or, rather, misdeeds) and tantrums. When grown men behave like 2-year old children throwing a tantrum, they can expect nothing but contempt and disgust.
If people in positions of responsibility within the republic behaved according to accepted standards, there would be nothing to write about.
You might not have a problem with Debono’s behaviour but there are a lot of people who do.
Both views are equally valid.
Franco? Is that you? Is Alfred Brincat a pseudonym, or is he one of the voices in your head?
I bet it is, him, Neil. The hysteria gives him away.
Meta ha tikber Franco, ghid?
It kind of helps you understand the ‘thousands of texts’ saga.
Daphne is guilty of incitement to reason and justice.
She should be given the Gieh ir-Repubblika.
You see, Daphne, as I told you, the Gieh ir-Repubblika idea is gaining ground.
Sur Brincat inti bis-serjeta? Tiftakar kemm harget hdura min FD lejn CMB u spicca qacctu mio ministru w spicca bil famuza ‘hu go fik?
Now that’s rich, “Alfred Brincat”. Let me tell you a more plausible reason why Franco made a complaint with the Chamber of Advocates (who can’t and shouldn’t do anything about it) instead of going through the proper channel (the Law Courts) if he really feels libelled or if Daphne is “inciting hatred”.
Resorting to the law courts would mean that Franco would not only be unable to avoid replying to questions, but he would also have to reply to questions UNDER OATH. And who has more to lose from doing that? At most, Daphne would only have to waste a few hours at the Law Courts. But what about Franco?
“I am in favour of freedom of expression…”
Hang on a moment, Sir Whoever-You-Are. If you are in favour of freedom of expression, you should always let anyone express anything they want to express, whether it be hatred or complying. There is NO whatsover law about “inciting hatred” else il-Muvument would’ve been acquitted with several charges for spreading hate speech.
Is Alfred Brincat a ‘double’ for Franco?
Oh Daphne, you’ve got him ranting about me me me again…now let’s just sit back and watch him implode.
Frankie the Cockerell says “Hu go fik, Daphne”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23448832
Franco … just shut up and get on with your work that is being paid through my taxes …
The reality is that DCG never reported anything deceitful and it infuriates so much all those who are under DCG’s scrutiny. Information is always true and precise.
I never knew you were an advocate.
Who is Franco Debono?
A famous model for Ralph Lauren. Fond of offshore racing, beach posing, and birds.
The answer to this question is ‘Irrelevant.’
I wonder. Did Franco Debono write to the Chamber as himself or as Alfred Brincat?
By the way, this is not a classic ‘split personality syndrome’ because Franco and Alfred both have the same. . . erm . . . personality.
It must have been awful sharing a boat ride to Sicily and back with Franco at full tilt.
I wonder if someone needs an excuse for not being able to do what he is being paid to do….blaming Ms Caruana Galizia for upsetting him might do the trick.
Someone who makes a career of being hateful throughout most of his public life shouldn’t complain if in the end he succeeds in rendering himself hateful and obnoxious even to the most patient and tolerant members of the public.
@ Alfred Brincat : if a person like Franco wears many hats, it’s not up to him under which hat he chooses protection from a pen.
Asking for protection of the Chamber of Advocates because someone objected that the Law Commissioner was seen in the company of a businessman on a day out abroad is logically ridiculous.
Franco has a problem – he has nothing to attack. Most probably he will start by complaining that he did not find the cooperation he expected.