Historian accuses heritage watchdog of denying him archaeological data

The historian and chairman of the National Book Council, Mark Camilleri, has filed a judicial protest accusing the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage of denying him access to historical data.

Camilleri said the same data was subsequently granted to a third person with the purpose of promoting “a false historical narrative”.

In a judicial protest filed on Thursday against the Superintendence and Heritage Malta, Camilleri said the Superintendence had, in May 2013, denied him access to a list – which he had requested to see a month prior under the Freedom of Information Act – of archaeological objects.

The request concerned all archaeological objects under the custody or responsibility of the Superintendence, which date back to between 800 and 1,400 AD.

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The Superintendence informed him that it was denying his request on the basis that the information was exempt from the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, because it was “related to scientific and/or academic research and/or would entail the revealing of information before the research is concluded, which would probably place the agency at an unreasonable disadvantage”.

Camilleri said that although he wasn’t allowed access to the data “for trivial and superfluous reasons”, he nonetheless persisted with his requests to the Superintendence, which kept completely ignoring him.

Despite this, the historian claims in his protest that it was now “blatantly clear and obvious that recently, certain individuals, amongst whom a person who had occupied the post of deputy director of the Superintendence, and who is now employed as an official with Heritage Malta, have been granted access and/or used the same information”.

Camilleri went on to argue that the reason behind this was to allow the promotion of historical theories which in his “humble opinion” were “completely erroneous and false: that during the Maltese medieval period, there was a continuation in the island’s population after the Arab invasion of 870-871 AD.”

To support his argument further, Camilleri said that certain findings had recently been announced by researcher Nathaniel Cutajar, who had made use of the data he had unsuccessfully requested access to. Such study findings had been exhibited in Heritage Malta’s Archaeological Museum in Valletta in October 2018 and during January 2019.

He also said that he was suspecting that the reason behind him being denied access to data which others had been granted permission to see was in order for “a historical narrative, which in [my] considered opinion is a scientific and historical falsity, to be promoted for politico-religious reasons.”

Camilleri said the Superintendence’s behaviour was discriminatory and injurious to his academic freedom and freedom of expression. “It is also behaviour which is hampering or stalling diverse historical opinions, causing prejudice to Maltese research, history and education in general,” he argued.

Camilleri is requesting in his protest that he is immediately granted access to the information in question.