Cry me a River Jason

Guest Post: The Times journalist Kurt Sansone took to Facebook to express his incredulity at PN’s ‘political charade’ and to ask PN to apologise to journalists who were victims of the same legal weapon that Jason Azzopardi and his colleagues are now decrying as undemocratic.

Last week’s mise-en-scene for Azzopardi outside the Valletta law courts has hit a nerve with current and former journalists alike. During his tenure as Cabinet Minister Azzopardi showed no inclination to have criminal libel removed or to show any restraint in its use. On the contrary, the same PN MPs and officials protesting outside the law courts, including Simon Busuttil, had frequently availed themselves of criminal libel as a political weapon.

Beato Jason enjoyed playing the role of the martyr, armed with a fake expression of piety. He should have brought along his Opus Dei whip. A public display of self-flagellation is an effective way to arouse public sympathy. As Jason immersed himself in theatrics worthy of the Good Friday procession, his PN colleagues whipped their rent-a-mob into an aggressive frenzy. ‘Inkapacitat’ was one of the least offensive slurs overheard at Azzopardi’s pity-party.

The PN mob verbally and physically aggressed the One journalists and Labour activists present, including a person with disability.In his denunciation of Azzopardi’s antics, Sansone highlighted the PN’s hypocrisy in 4 points. He urged PN MPs and activists to refrain from using criminal libel cases to gag journalists, to drop all pending criminal libel cases, to file a private members’ Bill to remove criminal libel from the statute books and to finally apologise to all the journalists who had endured their criminal libel cases in the past; ‘there were no cheering crowds to show them solidarity’.

Claire Bonello and Chris Peregin (The Times) and Matthew Vella, James Debono, Miriam Dalli and Josanne Cassar (Malta Today) Albert Gauci Cunningham (Illum) Mel Hart (blogger) are just few of the independent media figures who supported Sansone’s stance by sharing his comments via their personal Facebook page. The silence of the PN sycophants at the Malta Independent (sic) speaks volumes.