[WATCH] Minister to issue criteria after giving court director power to delete judgements

Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis justified the legal notice granting powers to the court director to remove judgements from the online court system on “right to be forgotten” grounds.

 “This was already a practice, as people wrote to court agency, and according to principles, the Court decided whether to remove one’s name or not from the website. We are simply defending those that maybe made a mistake 20 years ago and now are applying for a job,” Zammit Lewis said.

“The legal notice formalised the whole process and in the coming days, more guidelines will be published to explain how this discretion will be applied. The right to be forgotten is being discussed in European fora”.

Zammit Lewis stated there was no intention to impinge on anyone’s rights. “I understand the media and agree the court’s work should be public. This will only be an exception to the rule”.

READ ALSO: Newspapers call on Prime Minister to repeal right to forget powers

Zammit Lewis hails digitalisation as means to a universal justice system

Zammit lewis unveiled 18-months’ work on Malta’s digital justice strategy in a conference on Friday morning.

Zammit Lewis stressed on the importance of an effective justice system, strengthened by digital means. He explained how the pandemic helped increased the momentum of digitalisation.

“This strategy offers us an opportunity to go beyond the silo approach. We should aim at digital by default, digitalisation cannot be a plan B,” Zammit Lewis stated.

He explained how the European Commission wanted to improve access to justice, for all and said the government established a solid data management system.

“We must not work on data gathering at the expense of quality. We need to create reliable data in a bid to increase justice efficiency.”

Zammit Lewis stressed on the building and improving of digital skills and said it is futile to launch a strategy without backing it up with an awareness and educative campaign. “We must centre our strategy around the user and convince him that digital justice is something reliable and usable.”

The minister also called for rules for production of evidence for financial crime, especially money laundering.

READ ALSO: Power to courts director to delete public judgements ‘misconceived’, lawyers say