Court rejects Manuel Delia's request to remove ban on discussions about Caruana Galizia murder

A court has rejected a request by Manuel Delia to reconsider a blanket ban on public discussions about the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia and its alleged mastermind. 

A few days ago, Judge Edwina Grima ordered NEWZ.mt to pull down a video blog by Manuel Delia from its Facebook page. 

Throughout the video, Delia discussed a previous controversy in which the same judge had ordered Lovin Malta to remove parts of an interview with lawyer Jason Azzopardi, who claimed Fenech was the sole mastermind in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder.

This had prompted Judge Grima to issue a ban on “writings, whether printed or not, and declarations or public discussions on the broadcast media and social media, on the crime and the person accused of the crime,” until proceedings are concluded. 

Under this decree, only reports on the court proceedings are allowed, and anyone found guilty of breaching the order will be found in contempt of court. 

On Tuesday, Delia had asked the Criminal Court to reconsider this ban, arguing that the prohibition imposed on the reporting of Fenech’s unsuccessful attempt at obtaining a Presidential pardon was too wide in scope, unnecessary in a democratic country and breached the right to freedom of expression.

On Wednesday, this request was rejected.