Government seeks legal advice on PN's anti-SLAPP Bill

The Maltese government is seeking legal advice on whether an anti-SLAPP Bill presented by the Opposition is legally viable, according to Justice Minister Owen Bonnici.

The Bill, which was presented to Parliament earlier this month, was written by Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi and is intended to prevent the use of strategic lawsuits against public participation. Known as SLAPP, these lawsuits are intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defence until they abandon their criticism or opposition.

The proposed law seeks to make any defamation judgement handed down by a foreign court against Maltese journalists, against internal public policy, and therefore unenforceable in Malta.

“If a court abroad hands down a sentence related to abortion, for example,” Azzopardi said during the press conference, “this can’t be executed in Malta, because it goes against internal public policy”.

Asked by MaltaToday what the government’s position on the Bill was, Justice minister Owen Bonnici insisted that while the government had done its utmost to prevent SLAPP locally, it was still evaluating the proposed Bill.

“The Opposition has proposed a Bill, which provides that judgments for damages (libel) obtained in foreign jurisdictions against local journalists are not enforced in Malta in case the journalist in question decides not to take part in the case,” Bonnici said.

“The Government is obtaining legal advice on this proposal particularly in the light of private international law principles and mutual cooperation and enforcement of judgments within the EU.”

Questioned on whether a country was free to include whatever its parliament saw fit as a matter of public policy, as with abortion, Bonnici confirmed that issues relating to abortion were deemed internationally to relate to public policy.

“There is no argument about that.” The same, he said, could not be said of libel laws, adding that one needed to determine whether there was an international obligation related to the recognition of judgements related to damages.

Law will protect journalists

Despite the minister’s assertions, Azzopardi insisted, however, that there was nothing stopping parliament from legislating to protect local journalists. Azzopardi said he had written the Bill over a two-month period, after consulting with a number of experts on libel and internal law.

“It is up to parliament to decide what is against public policy,” he stressed, adding that there was no other law that prevented a sovereign parliament from doing so.

Ultimately, he said the government’s response reflected its desire to find any excuse it could to “kill” the Bill.

“I know for a fact that the Pilatus SLAPP threat was not done without acquiescence from within Castille,” said Azzopardi.

He also said insinuations that the Bill somehow impinged on the fundamental human right allowing one to seek redress after being wrongfully defamed, were fanciful at best.

“It is the threat not the protection that goes against fundamental rights,” said Azzopardi. According to the PN’s justice spokesperson, civil liberties didn’t only include LGBTIQ rights. “They are obviously very important, but civil liberties also include freedom of expression.”

Azzopardi also pointed out that when the government had introduced laws removing criminal liability for the vilification of religion, it had made a “whole song and dance” about how it didn’t want artists to be shackled, yet it seemingly did not feel the same way about journalists.

He said the reason was because it was “in the interest of the Labour Party” for the Bill not to become law.

“This is the moment of truth, when the government must show it truly believes in the sovereignty of country and its parliament,” Azzopardi said.