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Matthew Vella
Two members of Josie Muscat’s newly unveiled executive committee of Azzjoni Nazzjonli (AN) have been implicated in a race charge by the Broadcasting Authority, for breaching racial equality standards during the Smash TV programme B’Kull Dritt.
TV presenter George Tabone, the newly appointed information secretary for the far-right AN, accepted the charges brought by the authority and was fined Lm400 for breaching the Standards and Practice on the Promotion of Racial Equality.
He was fined for comments made by another AN member, the party’s international secretary Keith Caruana, during a programme which discussed the theme: “Is multiculturalism a threat?”
In the programme, Caruana described asylum seekers as “a bunch of criminals” (qatta’ kriminali). Also present for the programme were AN’s new secretary-general Philip Beattie, and lawyer Emy Bezzina, who is defence counsel to Norman Lowell in race hate charges brought against him by the police.
Azzjoni Nazzjonali’s new executive committee was announced on Friday, with Josie Muscat and entrepreneur Anglu Xuereb as party leader and deputy leader respectively, and former Alleanza Nazzjonali Repubblikana spokesman Philip Beattie as secretary-general.
Paul Salomone, who also faces charges of incitement to racial hatred, is the AN’s secretary for logistics. Salomone was charged by the police for inciting racial hatred during an inflammatory speech at a 2006 anti-immigration rally organised by ANR.
The Authority fined George Tabone’s programme for two comments made by Keith Caruana, a university student, for stating that children were being brainwashed into sharing the experiences of asylum seekers in detention, whom he described as a “bunch of criminals”.
Caruana showed pictures of Maltese schoolchildren in class, being shown a model of a detention camp surrounded by barbed wire, “so that Maltese kids can share the experience of these criminals who come here.”
He lashed out at NGOs for allowing “a bunch of criminals” involved in “criminal activities” to “brainwash” young children by “imposing alien values” in Maltese schools.
Tabone was also fined for another comment passed by Caruana, when screening an image of a burning car during the Paris riots, with a black man standing nearby. While the image was being shown, Caruana sarcastically remarked: “there’s the beauty of diversity.”
The new racial equality standards do not allow images which encourage racial disparagement or discrimination, unless displayed as factual material for a news or current affairs programme, or for other legitimate works of humour, satire or drama.
The programme, aired on 9 May, was the first to be fined under the new racial equality standards, issued the 30 April.
Another photo depicting immigrants teaching children how to play African percussion instruments was also shown. “Instead of teaching these kids how to appreciate Maltese culture… children are teaching them the African bongo culture,” Caruana is heard saying.
Philip Beattie, then appearing as an ANR spokesperson, repeatedly referred to the “Muslim threat” and warned that Muslim migrants could end up imposing polygamy in European countries.
The AN’s executive committee also includes Charles Attard, Malcolm Seychell, Anthony Zammit, Antonio Bartolo, and Kenneth Zammit.
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