Pornography ‘won’t be airing freely on television’, Broadcasting Authority says

Legal amendments to the Criminal Code will not result in the “free” transmission of pornographic content on television stations, as the Broadcasting Authority’s powers will remain unaffected, a BA spokesperson has told MaltaToday.

On Monday, the Malta Confederation of Women Organisations (MCWO) claimed that a Bill decriminalizing pornography - in a series of laws removing artistic censorship - was “promoting the sex shops and the licensing of TV channels that transmit pornographic content.”

The MCWO’s concerns were mostly diverted towards gender inequality and the exploitation of women. It argued that pornography, like prostitution, was yet another form of violence against women and in the majority of cases feeds into the system of exploitation of vulnerable women and young girls. 

However, the Broadcasting Authority insisted that a Bill repealing pornography and obscenity regulations will not affect its powers.

“The Authority has a function in regulating broadcasting which is laid down in the Broadcasting Act and is not dependent on what is defined as criminal or otherwise,” a spokesman for the BA said.

He explained that there could be considerable legitimate activity – not only pornography - that the authority would stop from being transmitted as it would be considered inappropriate or offensive.

“The provisions of protection of minors are very stringent for instance and the broadcasting of material which is pornographic in nature would never be allowed to air freely on television.”

To date, the BA has never entertained any requests for the transmission of a pornographic channel, including satellite stations which are licensed under Maltese law and which broadcast programmes to countries other than Malta.

Bill 113 of 2015 was drafted to update the provisions of the Criminal Code, in a far-reaching legal reform that will strike off criminal sanctions on the vilification of religion. The amendments remove laws that punish the vilification of the Roman Catholic religion and other “cults tolerated by law” – laws that have been in place since 1933.

The Bill seeks to strike a balance between “the right of everyone to receive and impart information and ideas and the need to protect society and vulnerable persons in particular from certain forms of pornography and indecency”.

The law will decriminalize pornography – which so far has been mostly used against artists – but distribution of “extreme pornography” will remain illegal.

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici, who today will be meeting the MCWO to discuss the Bill, said it was not government’s intention to discuss whether porn was ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

“I understand the concerns being raised by the MCWO but pornographic material is also easily accessible on the internet, a medium which has changed the powers a State can have over how and what to regulate,” he said.

“It is a reality and we had two options: either regulate or let everyone do whatever they liked. We chose to regulate, especially since the law is a very old one which has led to numerous injustices.”

In 2009 author Alex Vella Gera and editor Mark Camilleri were arraigned in court for offending public morals with the publication of a sexually explicit and crude short story in university newspaper Realtà. They had later been cleared of the charges.

“Pornography shouldn’t be used to attack artists … we are defining pornography, we are stating the limitations and, above all, we are safeguarding children and the vulnerable. The law also defines what is extremely pornographic and this be illegal.”

The new rules propose a three-year prison sentence and €6,000 penalty for “extreme pornography” – bestiality, necrophilia and explicit displays of rape – while creating a difference between public and artistic displays of erotic art or culture that could fall under generic definitions of pornography.
It will now be illegal to cause distress and emotional harm by the use of revenge porn – disclosing private sexual photographs or film without the consent of the persons depicted in the photograph – which crime carries a punishment of up to two years’ jail and a €5,000 fine.

The law will allow the display of pornographic material in public places, as long as an adequate warning notice is placed and where no minors are permitted to enter.  

Bonnici said that the aim was not to promote sex shops but to regulate shops where porn material is sold. By way of example, a DVD shop should section off pornographic material in an area inaccessible to minors with a warning sign prohibiting admittance to persons under 18 years of age.