In the wake of its suppression by the Rector of the University, Ir-Realtà Collective has founded the ‘Front Against Censorship’. Teodor Reljic speaks to editor Mark Camilleri
What are the main aims of your proposals to government? The aims of the proposals are to abolish the censorship regime. This regime isn’t an institution by itself, but is made up of a number of systems and attitudes which are embedded in State structures. The use of outdated laws by the police, which operate under the benediction of the courts, help to nurture this regime. If the police are arresting artists and carnival goers for breaking article 163 of the Criminal Code, then a clear act of censorship has taken place. Why should a DJ be given a three-month prison sentence, suspended by three years, for displaying a naked woman after Pope Benedict XVI? Would I be given the same sentence if I did the same but with a Buddhist monk instead? No! The DJ was thus sentenced because criticising in an explicit way the Roman Catholic institution is illegal.
That’s why outdated laws are being used to suit the Catholic extremists to suppress criticism, art, satire and anything which isn’t to their liking. A system which is causing censorship is for example the network of the Chaplain and other influential priests with the University authorities. They heavily influence what happens on campus. We have, for example, seen our newspaper banned by the advice of the Chaplain, and we have seen a sociology lecturer censored on Campus FM. Dr Mark Anthony Falzon was censored on Campus FM when he criticised Minister’s Tonio Borg’s decision to send back Eritrean immigrants who were then tortured and killed. The scheduled repeat programme was not aired because he had criticised Borg and this had happened with the benediction of the then Campus FM consultant Fr. Joe Borg. Fr. Joe Borg should have never even sat in such a board because there is an obvious conflict of interests when a priest is involved in the official radio station of the University of Malta. And this is as not to mention the much more obscene act of censorship which happened to Karl Schembri on campus FM, when the radio station censored a small reading from a Maltese novel.
However, I would like to point out that we are not against censoring hate speech against anyone, be it women, homosexuals, immigrants or minorities. There is a line that shouldn’t be crossed but censoring people for religious purposes is way past its time. We have nothing against the Catholic Church and it should express its views like any other group, but it shouldn’t dictate to others what to read, what to watch or how to dress.
Concretely speaking, how do you hope to go about implementing the proposals? We are aiming to unite a front of citizens and organisations, large enough to lobby with parliament and convince them to accept our proposals. If we turn the censorship issue into electoral capital, than we have the possibility to achieve our goals. We are still in the organisational phase and are still assembling support from groups and people. However, thanks to Franco Rizzo, who organized the event, we will be staging our first protest on December 4 at noon at quadrangle of the University of Malta. This will be the first action to pressure the authorities to end this repression. We are urging all citizens, as well as political and independent organizations to attend this protest, to show their dissatisfaction with the Rector’s decision to ban our newspaper and to support our cause for the abolishing of censorship. It will be the first action in a sequence of events that will bring momentum to our cause.
What are some of the key events that have led you to set up the Front? The ban of the eight issue of Ir-Realtà served as the flame to the powder keg. There were many acts of censorship this year alone, and they had provided enough dissatisfaction to finally rouse a chorus which chants: “This can’t keep going on forever!” The Front represents an accumulation of dissatisfaction towards censorship, and our document of proposals arrives in line with the times.
Where do you see public opinion heading with regard to this issue? The general feeling is that there are many citizens who are dissatisfied with the censorship regime, particularly those who have been bitten by it. We are increasingly seeing right-wingers and Catholics who are also very much dissatisfied with these affairs and are therefore sympathetic to our activities. So I am sure that most of the people do not believe in censorship. Although what I am saying is very optimistic, we must not forget that even though we have the sympathies of many people from different walks of life, we are not yet a populist movement, because the censorship issue does not seem to be affecting the daily bread of the workers. However, censorship is heavily affecting our economy in many ways and once people will understand this, we will grow significantly. For example, the reason why the private and independent television industry is nearly inexistent is because we have a censorship regime. If I can’t set up a television station that would air, for example, a Maltese version of South Park, then citizens who like South Park and other kinds of satirical programmes (which are in their thousands and not hundreds) will never get the chance to see them in Maltese, at least not on a local television channel. There exists a potential market in the independent and private television industries in Malta because there is a high demand for local material, but this market can’t exist if the Broadcasting Authority comes down on you like a ton of bricks if you air something that isn’t to the liking of extremists or Church leaders.
Come to think of it, do you think that people are informed enough on the issue, generally speaking? No. As censorship tightens its grip, citizens are becoming more aware of its presence, but this is hardly a solution: we don’t want a larger censorship regime to be put into place, just for the sake of more publicity or more awareness. We have limited resources and so we are moving slowly but steadily. People are gradually becoming aware that certain attitudes and systems are housing a censorship regime, and that extremists are largely to blame for this.
Would you say there is a particular bias when it comes to censorship, or are all artistic sectors affected by it? All artistic sectors are heavily affected, except for those artists who use only the internet as their medium of choice, because it is harder to censor something digitally than a newspaper distributed on campus, or a theatre production.
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