Opinion: Is Julia Farrugia Portelli Out Of Her Mind?
The Minister for Inclusion has issued a declaration that should concern everyone who cares about free speech.
Regular citizens who share online jokes that the establishment considers offensive, Julia Farrugia Portelli implied, should be fined €10,000 in the name of justice.
The “crime” in question was a meme of an unidentified person with Down’s Syndrome with a caption that read: “Website is Down… Oooh, me too!”.
Distasteful? Absolutely. A threat to society that should be punished by a fine equal to what an average earner would make in ten months? Oh, come on…
It could have been even worse too. The meme poster was convicted of threatening inclusion in society but cleared of hate speech because he had posted it before the law came into effect. Presumably, if he had posted it after December 2021, he would have faced an even heftier punishment. Imprisonment?
A government minister who cares about free speech would have reacted to this conviction by calling for an update to Malta’s speech laws to clarify that speech should only be considered a crime when it constitutes a legitimate threat.
Instead, we get Farrugia Portelli praising the courts and stating that no one should ever be derided. Of course, she has no problem with her party’s media house deriding anyone who criticises the government but let’s leave that out for now.
This entire train of thought is twisted and symptomatic of a government that believes it is its duty to control what people say. A society that embraces free speech is a society that accepts derision, uncomfortable though it might be. If you’re only free to say things that the government finds acceptable, then you’re not truly free.
Should Malta update its speech laws?
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