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Anna Mallia’s comments of 1 January 2006, wherein she says that retired judges who accept posts within the public service will inevitably be on the government’s side since they not going to bite the hand that feeds them were probably inspired by retired Judge Franco Depasquale’s nauseatingly biased report about the beatings on illegal immigrants at Hal Far, but I wish that she had not put the Chief Emeritus, retired judge Dr Joseph Said Pullicino, in the same boat (sic)!
Judges are untouchable, yet many people will attest that as judge and later as chief justice, Dr Said Pullicino meted out justice in the fairest of ways. He never resorted to a “clinical” application of the letter of the law to cases which he had to decide. Later, when Dr Said Pullicino became chairman of the Broadcasting Authority he showed most unequivocally that he was not there to toe the government line. Dr Mallia surely remembers that it was during Dr Said Pullicino’s tenure as chairman that the MLP’s protests of non access to state television and the violation of the right to expression of opinion (against European Union membership), were remedied. It was Dr Said Pullicino who ordered PBS to broadcast the MLP’s anti-European membership “spots” before the referendum. That decision, though perfectly in line with constitutional rights and principles of freedom of information, the public’s right to receive ideas, and equal access to state television, could not have been welcomed by the PN and I believe that this was the reason why Dr Said Pullicino was not re-confirmed as chairman of the Broadcasting Authority for the next three years when his term as chairman expired.
When I learned that Dr Said Pullicino had been appointed Ombudsman, I was relieved. The big-shot who had put his foot down to Dr Said Pullicino’s re-appointment at the Broadcasting Authority had at least had the good sense not to put to waste valuable human resources once Dr Said Pullicino was still willing to continue serving his country.
Lynn Zahra
Valletta
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