Standards Commissioner snubs man who 'manipulated' Omtzigt Wikipedia page

Standards Commissioner George Hyzler has snubbed Anthony DeGiovanni after a complaint he made on Nationalist MP Claudette Buttigieg's questions in parliament with regards to his "manipulation" of Pieter Omtzigt's Wikipedia page.

DeGiovanni complained that her question would have made it easy for anyone to identify him and that the word "manipulation" to refer to his editing of Omtzigt's page was defamatory. 

"It is the Speaker who has to decide whether an MPs questions are admissible. I don't have the authority to oversee the Speaker's exercise of his discretion except in exceptional or serious circumstances," Hyzler wrote in response to DeGiovanni's complaint.

Buttigieg had tabled a question in parliament last month about a police investigation into the manipulation of Council of Europe special rapporteur Pieter Omtizgt's Wikipedia page. Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri had replied that "there were no elements constituting a criminal act."

DeGiovanni, a Labour stalwart and former Fgura mayor, later admitted that he had used a government computer at the Education Ministry to change the Wikipedia profile of Omtzigt through a "legitimate editing" of the page.

He later filed a complaint with the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, saying that Buttigieg's question to all government MPs risked revealing his identity.

"It would have been easier for the media to identify you if the question were posed to just one minister," Hyzler replied. 

His complaint with the word "manipulation" was also deemed trivial by the Commissioner. "The word 'manipulated' isn't always used with negative connotations and cannot be deemed defamatory here."

For these reasons, Hyzler informed DeGiovanni that there was no basis for his complaint to be investigated.