Anti-divorce lobby decries ‘bullying’ over media reports on civil servant

Updated at 3:10pm with Saviour Balzan's comments.

The Moviment Zwieg Bla Divorzju is claiming the media is engaging in a “systematic bullying campaign” against its members, after MaltaToday revealed that the Cabinet’s deputy secretary was taking a front-seat role in the ‘no’ lobby.

Frans Borg, a former permanent secretary in the social policy minister, has taken two months’ vacation leave ahead of the 28 May referendum, at a time when he is also formally militating within the lobby group Zwieg Bla Divorzju.

Borg has represented the lobby in formal meetings with the Broadcasting Authority, and also signed correspondence on behalf of a group officially campaigning for a ‘No’ vote in the May 28 referendum.

Malta’s Public Management Code explicitly precludes public servants like Borg – who is brother to media lecturer Fr Joe Borg, considered very close to the anti-divorce movement – from any form of involvement in political issues and campaigns.

Issued in May 2007, the code of conduct is very clear on public officers in Scales 1 to 5, who are “required to maintain a reserve in political matters and abstain from any public manifestation of their views which might associate them prominently with any political party.”

Restrictions include an automatic ban on “speaking in public on matters of political controversy” and “expressing views on political matters in letters to the press, or in books, articles or leaflets”, among others.

In its reaction yesterday, the Zwieg bla Divorzju chairperson Andre Camilleri said everybody was free to participate in the referendum campaign, and called on the media to be “more cautious in their reporting and inform the people of what they will be voting upon, instead of attacking individuals personally.”

The lobby claimed the media – without explicitly referring to MaltaToday – was systematically bullying its members.

Mediatoday managing editor Saviour Balzan said MaltaToday’s story revealed the inconsistency of the head of civil service. “In a democratic and normal society, this story has a particular news value, given that in the past 40 years scores of civil servants were denied the right to participate in activities of controversy or of political nature.

“The accusation of bullying is an echo of the criticism made to the media of being ‘provocative’ for reporting particular news items.”

The Public Management Code states that “activity in the political field, legitimately open to the ordinary citizen, is not considered compatible with the holding of certain posts in the Public Service.”

Furthermore the new directives, updated in January 2011, make it clear that any position within Scales 1 to 5 – which include permanent secretaries within ministries – is considered ‘politically restricted”.

Nonetheless Dr Godwin Grima, head of the Civil service and author of the above mentioned amendments to the code, sees no contradiction between Borg’s involvement in the referendum campaign, and his role as deputy secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers (among other prominent public service positions).

“The introduction of divorce in Malta is not considered to be of a party political nature,” Dr Grima told MaltaToday.

Frans Borg himself said that he considers the two roles – political activist and civil servant – to be compatible: “Although I see no conflict between what I am doing and my official duties, I confirm that I requested the permission of the Principal Permanent Secretary for a period of vacation leave and permission was granted.”

But the divorce issue has since been elevated to the status of “party political” by the ruling Nationalist Party: which has not only adopted a clear stand against its introduction, but has also made clear – through its leader Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi - that it intends to campaign for a ‘No’ vote on May 28.

Furthermore, the provisions of the Referendum Act are such that involvement on an electoral level is automatically restricted to political parties, as reported on Sunday.

Effectively this means that for the purposes of administering and monitoring electoral proceedings, the divorce referendum is by definition ‘of a party political nature’.

Only political parties are automatically entitled to representation on the Electoral Commission, which is responsible for the entire electoral process.

Different weights and measures

The same Public Management Code has been cited in the past to pressure members of Alternattiva Demokratika and the defunct party Azzjoni Nazzjonali to relinquish their roles in the executive of these parties.

In 2008, former AD secretary general Victor Galea was pressured into resigning his political post on the grounds that he could not continue exercising his teaching profession, as teachers in public employment are precluded from any political activities.

A letter sent from the Office of the Prime Minister instructed the permanent secretary in the Gozo Ministry to inform Galea that as a teacher, he “may not hold the post of Secretary General of AD.”

But the Prime Minister denied any knowledge of the letter sent to Galea at the time, insisting that the case had been prompted by a “bureaucrat who had gone by the book” in issuing the letter to Galea.

The Prime Minister had also intervened by ordering the suspension of the letter and for the position to be reviewed.  The OPM also acknowledged that apart from Galea “there are other people who have positions in the civil service while occupying political posts.”