I’ll have to say this in Maltese: Il-vera trid tkun Laburist li minghalik il-gvern tieghek. This is real arrogance.
Times of Malta reports today about Labour-voting, PN-hating (he didn’t start out as a Mintoffian but it all began when Prime Minister Fenech Adami wanted to have him impeached by parliament) Magistrate Carol Peralta’s ghastly but so typical behaviour yesterday when he held a party in a courtroom.
When the reporter arrived at the scene when the party was winding down, shortly before 4pm, and attempted to take a picture of the event through the court room port hole but was stopped.
A court usher tapped the reporter on the shoulder and warned him that he was under “court arrest” and escorted him into the hall.
The magistrate emerged from his chambers, holding a drink and, with slurred speech he hurled insults, describing the journalist as “scum” and a “parasite of society”.
Swirling a drink in his hand and smoking a cigarette, he asked for the reporter’s name and details, which were given to him, and then asked for the reporter’s phone, which was not handed over. He then ordered his arrest and the police were called in.
Now the prime minister and his justice puppet Owen Bonnici are expressing their disapproval all over the shop. Too damn late. This is what happens when you create a climate in which your supporters think they can do whatever they please, and worse, where you lead by example with members of the cabinet behaving as though they neither accountable nor answerable to anyone and can do as they like while challenging the press to do its worst.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131220/local/owen-bonnici-reporters-arrest-was-abusive-illegal.499781#.UrP5Nsu9KSM
If the ministers can be arrogant, why not the magistrates.
This article, in particular the last paragraph, is nothing but the best statement and illustration of the reality of the situation in Malta to date. This is the climate we are living in.
The general level of the country’s administration has been deteriorating quite fast over the last months to a level below the average. Look at the Police Force, the Army, the DOI, Castille as the Office of the Prime Minister, which has been turned into an occasional coffee / fashion outlet. And now even the law courts are turning into a party hall.
When are our Politicians going to learn and differentiate between those funds, property and resources which are public and those which are private?
Ordered his arrest? So he gave a judgement on the spot?
Arresting journalists happens when democracy is wiped out from a society.
Scary times!
Issa jigu jghidulna li n-Nazzjonalisti jaghmlu hsara jekk ixandru dal-hnizrijiet. Mafjuzi.
‘A court usher tapped the reporter on the shoulder and warned him that he was under “court arrest” and escorted him into the hall.’
Rest assured that this particular court usher, and many others like him, would have not acted in this manner if this action was done by a criminal instead of a reporter.
We are living in “miserable ” times