Many people who voted PN all their lives, like I have, say they could not continue to do so under the current circumstances. They want nothing better than seeing the corrupt gang that has its grip on our country booted out. But they are keen on a refreshing replacement and the options appear rather limited right now.
Having said all that David Casa’s fight in the European Parliament reminds us what the Nationalist Party is for. As is Jason Azzopardi’s here in Malta’s Parliament. In tandem they are proposing to the chambers they sit in for legislation to protect journalists from the sort of legal abuse that Daphne Caruana Galizia suffered at the hands of Pilatus Bank before she suffered worse at the hands of who knows who.
This report in The Guardian speaks about David Casa’s and six of his colleagues’ initiative in the European Parliament to seek European legislation to prevent the chilling effect of SLAPPs from corporate giants crushing investigative journalists with financial assassination.
We may depend on their success, as the ominous silence of Malta’s government when faced by the same proposal gives us little hope.
The committee stage discussion on the new press law continues in our Parliament on 12th March and hopefully by then Jason Azzopardi’s amendments to provide for anti-SLAPP provisions finally come up for discussion. We are made to wait for our basic rights as citizens to have our journalists free to find the truth on our behalf protected by our government.
And if it isn’t done here, it is providential that our European Union membership may be of some comfort in this case.
Roberta Metsola’s challenge to the European Commission to look into a Vitals agreement is another episode of how our MEPs use what little influence they enjoy to protect our interests. Francis Zammit Dimech worked on media freedom policies as well over the last several months.
Our list of allies is thin. But true.