Busuttil won’t commit on revealing information about phone tapping

Busuttil intends raising unanswered PQs in Security Committee.

it is not clear whether Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil intends to share that information with the public once a meeting of the security committee is convened in the first week of July. (Photo: Ray Attard)
it is not clear whether Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil intends to share that information with the public once a meeting of the security committee is convened in the first week of July. (Photo: Ray Attard)

Numerous questions have been raised in parliament in connection with phone tapping carried out by the Malta Security Service and answers will only be given in the security committee, which meets in private.

However, it is not clear whether Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil intends to share that information with the public once a meeting of the security committee is convened in the first week of July.

“I fully intend to raise all unanswered parliamentary questions during the upcoming security committee meeting in July,” Busuttil said in reply to MaltaToday’s questions.

He however stopped short of replying to the second part of MaltaToday’s questions, in which this newspaper asked whether he planned to reveal the information that is being requested in parliament.

The committee, which includes Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia and Busuttil, oversees the operations of the Security Service.

The Monitoring Committee for the Scrutiny of Malta Security Services has not met since June 2013 – that meeting, too, was held at the request of the Opposition leader. The Opposition is now pressing the government to publish the annual report on the Security Service.

Recent statistics showed that mobile phone operator Vodafone received 3,773 requests in Malta for metadata, leading to concerns that Malta is the most spied-on nation in the European Union.

Metadata can include clients’ names and addresses, device locations, and the times of calls and messages. Single warrants can target hundreds of people and several warrants can be for information about a single individual.

Malta is one of just eight Vodafone countries where telephony operators are legally barred from providing information on the extent of wire tapping. This puts Malta in the same league with countries such as Albania, Egypt, India, Qatar, South Africa, and Turkey.

Backbencher Marlene Farrugia has also asked how many phone tapping requests were filed between January 2013 to date, how many requests were filed following Labour’s election in March 2013, how long a tapping order lasts, how many email and SMS accounts are tapped and whether there are any plans to remove the minister’s power to order phone tapping.

During her intervention in parliament on Monday evening, Nationalist MP Kristy Debono said it should be the government’s own initiative – and not the operator’s – to publish statistics on metadata.

“The government must publish the number of warrants issued every year to allow interceptions and the number of interceptions that actually took place. We need a transparent logging system,” the MP said.

She went on to suggest that it should no longer be the minister who issues the warrant while there should be judicial surveillance of the security service system.

Debono said the security committee should be convened regularly and the frequency of these meetings should be regulated by law.

She joined her fellow MPs in calling for the publication of the Security Service’s annual report and also called for a legal framework that is regularly updated and reflects advancements in technology.