Juanito Camilleri has some explaining to do. I refer to the rector of the University of Malta, who has chosen to ignore press questions regarding an ongoing human rights violation on campus – evidently under the impression that he is somehow above or beyond all earthly constraints, and can simply do what the devil he pleases.
Well, sorry to break the news, but last I looked University rectors were not actually above the law... no, no matter how close they may be to the establishment of their day. So when it transpires that an amateur newspaper was actively suppressed on his campus – in direct violation of both Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 10 of the European Convention of the same – and, worse still, that the author of a piece therein was even questioned by the police – the rector on whose watch all this took place ought to at least explain what’s going on... and this for two reasons above all others.
One, what occurred on campus last week was a breach of both local and international law. Yes, I know it sounds melodramatic, but quite frankly I don’t give a toss. We can’t just carry on picking and choosing which human rights to respect, and which to flush unceremoniously down the toilet. And unless the rector reassures us that he himself played no part in the censorship decision, then one can only deduce that he was accessory to a serious crime. (Oh, and in case you are unaware of what took place on campus last week, read about it on page 2).
Two, the act of censorship in itself imparted the general message that “original thought” is viewed by the University authorities as something of a blot on the landscape to be wiped out as thoroughly as possible. (Hardly surprising, then, that in a separate incident, we recently discovered that the same University to Malta is also a hive of student plagiarism).
By proxy, there is a third reason why the suppression of a newspaper on campus should really have sounded alarm bells among that University’s academic staff. I happen to be a graduate of the same University of Malta – yes, I earned a Bachelor’s degree in English and Theatre Studies way back in 1994 – and quite frankly I am worried that the standards of the university, and with it the value of my own degree, may have been lowered as a result.
Call me a lunatic, but unlike the vast majority of sane people in this country I happen to take a dim view of human rights violations. And besides: who in his right mind would want it known that the University he graduated from is an institution that actively discourages the expression of original ideas? It is for these reasons, and others beside, that alumni of that University (if not the rest of the country) are owed an explanation. And not just from the rector, either.
Leaving aside the implications for the University itself, and the value of the degrees it dishes out... on what actual grounds was the publication censored?
I have read and re-read the offending story by Alex Vella Gera, and can’t for the life of me comprehend why anyone in this day and age would even bat an eyelid... let alone why the author would find himself quizzed by the police.
It seems the policeman who called him referred to ‘kliem baxx’ (“bad language”) as justification for his interest in the matter. But ‘bad language’ is not in itself against the law – if it were, both Guze Stagno and Immanuel Mifsud would be behind bars, instead of the critically acclaimed authors they are today.
Nor is it clear on what grounds the language is even considered objectionable. True, Vella Gera makes liberal use of the Maltese word “gh*xx” – that’s the equivalent of the English “c*nt”, though the latter is arguably much more offensive – and there is also the occasional ‘n*jk*’, ‘h*x*’, among various other expressions which can loosely be approximatively translated as ‘f*ck’.
There is also ubiquitous “z*bb” (“p*n*s”)... but while some people clearly find the written word offensive, few seem to have taken offence at the erection (ahem) of a giant ‘z*bb’ monument near the old Luqa airport, slap bang across the road from the old Mambra outlet. It seems, therefore, that the word alone still has the power to offend, while the “thing itself” (to borrow a Shakespearian quip – after all, Shakespeare’s didn’t mind the occasional reference to both zb*b and gh*x*x, though he tended to be slightly less prosaic about it) lost that power long ago.
Such is the whimsicality of the times we live in...
But not one of these objectionable words – which by the way also include “p*p*” and “k*k*”, which I hadn’t heard since junior school – is actually illegal; nor is their presence in print the first of its kind. Apart from the published works of Stagno and Mifsud, there was also a long-running TV series by the name of “Sally Jesse Raphael” on (if I’m not mistaken) One TV. Every other word was a “z*bb” or an “gh*xx”, but I don’t recall the programme being pulled off the air, still less its screenwriters ever interrogated by the police.
I can only conclude, therefore, that ‘vulgarity’ served as a pretext to have the publication removed from campus. The real reason for its eviction must have been another, and – coming in the same week as a radical leftwing student group was similarly evicted from its offices at KSU – I don’t think we have to look very far for an alternative explanation.
In fact, we need only look as far as the front page, with its unflattering depiction of Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi in the guise of a Roman emperor. Ah, yes, good old Lawrence Gonzi: the only politician in the world to laugh all the time... without actually possessing a sense of humour.
Anyway, at this point I imagine quite a few of you out there will think that I have lost the plot, to make such an inordinate song and dance about something most people would reason is really quite inconsequential.
I won’t argue with that – after all, it wasn’t much of a plot to begin with, and I’m not even sure if I’d recognise it if I found it again – but for those who might not share my concern with the ‘human rights violation’ aspect of things... well, this is what Article 19 of the Human Rights Declaration actually says:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” (my emphasis).
To this must be added Article 2 of the same declaration, which points out that: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.”
(In other words, you can’t argue that Malta is ‘special’, and that different rules apply on purely cultural grounds.)
Oh, and in case you still thought that there was some kind of hidden proviso in there somewhere – a proviso which enables University rectors to decide which publications get to be distributed on campus, and which can be shut down with impunity – you might want to also consider the following excerpt from the Handyside ruling by the European Court of Human Rights:
“Freedom of expression constitutes one of the essential foundations of such a society, one of the basic conditions for its progress and for the development of every man. Subject to paragraph 2 of Article 10 (art. 10-2), it is applicable not only to ‘information’ or ‘ideas’ that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population. Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no ‘democratic society’”. (my emphasis again).
So is this a democratic society or isn’t it? Don’t all speak at once.
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