Mario Spiteri, the well-known public face of the health promotion department, will no longer head the government’s public awareness campaigns since he was unexpectedly removed from his position last Wednesday.
Contacted by MaltaToday shortly after he was informed he was out of a job, Spiteri said he had “very strongly-based suspicions” that the invisible hand of the Church was behind his removal after he stood his ground against promoting abstinence exclusively as the only means of prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.
“I had a serious clash with the church’s commission for youth (Kummissjoni Djocesana Zghazagh – KDZ) when they asked for our department’s funding to finance their campaign promoting sexual abstinence,” Spiteri said.
“I was under pressure to give in to the KDZ’s insistent requests for funds but I stuck to my position. My first allegiance is towards the public, and promoting abstinence is something from another era. Who’s going to buy that? I couldn’t do that and sleep comfortably when the World Health Organisation clearly lists abstinence alongside sexual loyalty and condoms as the best ways to avoid STDs.”
Spiteri was shown the door through an official interviewing procedure as the health division is undergoing a restructuring process that will merge the health promotion department with the disease surveillance unit that was already headed by Dr Charmaine Gauci.
Dr Gauci will now be replacing Spiteri also on the health promotion front while he will return as a normal department employee.
“It is effectively a demotion,” Spiteri said. “It’s a vote of no confidence in me. Now they have merged disease surveillance with health promotion. Unfortunately, while we’re told that prevention should be more important than cure, it has always been the Cinderella of public health.”
Health Minister Louis Deguara said he had no information about any pressure related to the department’s sexual health campaigns.
“Nobody in his right mind would base a sexual health campaign exclusively on abstinence,” Deguara said yesterday night. “Spiteri gave a very valid contribution and I never had any problems with him. Maybe he could have carried out wider consultation prior to the smoking ban campaign but other than that there were no issues with him. The appointment of Dr Gauci has happened through a regular selection process and if he feels aggrieved about there are official channels to go about it.”
Besides sexual health, Spiteri has been at the forefront of the smoking ban introduced three years ago, establishing himself as an anti-smoking crusader in direct confrontation with business interests, particularly bars and nightspot owners represented by GRTU.
But Spiteri, who has been heading the department for the last five years, says he always had a straightforward relationship with the smoking lobby.
“Whatever their views, we always respected each others’ positions and I could speak freely even to the staunchest hardliners when the smoking ban was introduced and we were crossing swords,” Spiteri said. “On the other hand I am wary of the quiet types who would backstab you at their first opportunity.”