Pullicino Orlando, Caruana Galizia cross swords over campaign to punish cyberbullies

The former Nationalist MP who struck out against his government and in the process earned the opprobrium of poison-pen blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia, is about to mount a counter-attack.

Ever since his embroilment in an embarrassing planning scandal during the 2008 elections, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando was the bane of Malta Independent columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia, whose Running Commentary blog targeted the MP and his relatives with an incessant barrage of verbal mockery with the aid of some unsightly Facebook snapshots.

Now 'JPO' is launching an online petition calling on people to take a stand against cyber-bullying, through a new organisation he is fronting, the Anti-Cyberharassment Alliance.

Pullicino Orlando said the ACHA would be organising a number of public events in the coming weeks, in a bid to influence new laws that deal with the issues of cyberstalking, harassment and bullying, and to have MPs legislate against internet bullying.

"Many countries have had laws defining and punishing stalking, harassment and bullying for some time... Harassment, in legal terms, is usually defined as continued or systematic unwanted actions by a party toward a victim. This may include threats, insults, demands or coercion, and may be based on a dislike of the person or on the race, nationality, political or religious beliefs or sex of the person being harassed...

"Cyber harassment is simply harassment carried out through electronic means."

Pullicino Orlando, who today chairs the Malta Centre for Science and Technology, did not fail to point out that "cyber harassment may also take the form of blogs or entire websites designed to upset, bother or verbally attack the victim or victims."

He said the ACHA would encourage MPs to address this issue through the enactment of a law making cyberstalking and cyber harassment criminal offences. "A conviction should result in a restraining order, probation or even criminal penalties against the assailant, including jail."

No love lost

No sooner had he launched his petition at midday Saturday than tormentor Daphne Caruana Galizia entered the fray, signing the petition herself. "I have just signed it and have put down my reason for doing so. I, my husband, my sons, my parents and sisters have all been subjected to aggressive and malicious cyberstalking and cyber harassment by members of the Labour Party, its supporters and the promoter of this petition, Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando. Existing laws have not been sufficient to deal with their behaviour, which is intended to restrict, by means of threats, intimidation and malice, freedom of expression and criticism of the public individuals and politicians involved."

Cue the fireworks: within minutes of her having signed the petition, Caruana Galizia claimed she had received a text message from JPO himself, thanking her for signing. "To which my response, in another text message, was 'Sod off and get your head examined, you demented little prick.' No doubt he is, as we speak, battering down every police-related door available to him, to have charges brought against me for sending him this message."

There can be no doubt that Pullicino Orlando will serve the Labour government as an ideal front to drum up support for rules against cyberbullying, especially after Caruana Galizia made Labour-baiting the main menu on her blog.

Reinventing herself as a social media gadfly, no Facebook profile without proper privacy settings was safe from Caruana Galizia's photo-trawling, which specifically targeted Labour MPs and their relatives and supporters, parading them mercilessly as chavs or gauche champagne socialists.

'Plategate' was the spark for this typical brand of personalised barbs: at a dinner party, Bondiplus presenter Lou Bondì witnessed - and later tattled on - his host, Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera, for delighting in the news that Caruana Galizia's husband had reported his wife to the police over a domestic incident, allegedly involving the injurious lobbing of the spousal dinnerware.

Her victims have complained that she was an unofficial extension of the PN party media, undertaking the dirty work that journalists could not.

As described by columnist David Friggieri in MaltaToday, she was "right there getting down and dirty where things matter, with an attitude to match the role" in airing people's dirty linen, using her blog to "provide some form of release in a society which tends to be artificially formalistic in its approach to public life".