Magistrate highlights loophole in online hate speech law

Hate speech inciting violence or hatred towards groups of persons is only a criminal offence under Maltese law if that group of persons are in Malta, a court has held.

This emerged in a sentence that was handed down by the Court of Magistrates earlier this week in the case against prison warder Vincent Debono, who had been arrested after a Facebook comment of his was brought to the attention of his bosses by a Human Rights consultant in Ireland.

The comment, “I hope it's burning with them inside” had been posted beneath a shared article about a string of arson attacks on facilities housing asylum seekers in Sweden.

Ciaran o Maolain, writing in the name of HRTEC Ireland, had emailed Raymond G. Zammit, then Director of Correctional Services, asking whether the Correctional Service or the Minister was going to tolerate their employees using social media to express approval of the live burning of Muslims and whether any disciplinary action was in the pipeline.

Debono had been questioned by police inspector Spiridione Zammit the next day and was subsequently charged with misuse of computer equipment and using threats or insults to incite racial hatred or violence. He admitted to having posted the comments, to the police.

With regards the charge of misuse of computer equipment Magistrate Aaron Bugeja was in no doubt that Debono's comments had exceeded the boundaries of free speech and therefore constituted an illegal application of computer equipment, for which it fined him €5,000.

However, the court cleared Debono of the second charge, that of inciting racial hatred, holding that it only applied to groups present in Maltese territory at the time.

“In the opinion of the Court, the phenomenon of racism is not one only tied to territory, but extends beyond Maltese territorial waters. However, this court is bound by the law as it stands and must interpret the law according to the original intention of the legislator...This court cannot change the law itself. The law must be changed by the legislator. And the court must use reasoning that corresponds with that of the legislator....which clearly emerges from the wording of the law itself.”

The court had researched the issue in depth in order to establish the spirit of the law, going so far as to analyzing minutes of parliamentary discussions when the law was being formulated, in 2002.

Magistrate Bugeja called on the legislator to “seriously consider” widening the definition of persons protected against hate speech to include persons who are not in Malta.

Lawyers Veronique Dalli and Dean Hili defended Debono.