David Darmanin A bye-law issued by the Sliema Local Council last month stipulates that any person posting a link of the council’s official website on another internet site risks getting slapped a fine of €46.59.
Furthermore, an additional penalty of €2.33 for every day “during which the council’s webpage is accessible on the offender’s webpage without the written authorisation” of a council official, becomes applicable by law.
But neither Mayor Nikki Dimech, nor the councillor responsible for the website seemed to be aware of the implications of this new bye-law – neither could provide this newspaper with the reasoning behind this decision.
“I have been informed that the bye-law in question was drafted in precedence to the present council,” councillor Yves Cali told MaltaToday, in spite of the law having been issued last January – six months after the new council was formed. “Since then we have a new mayor and a new executive secretary and neither could furnish me with any information as they were not present at the time.”
Web consultants promote the extensive posting of web links on different websites so that search engine listing is optimised. In other words, the more links placed with the council’s website address, the greater are the chances of it featuring prominently on google.com or other similar search engines.
Yves Cali in fact assured that the bye-law itself “was counter-productive” and that he would insist they are not enforced. “I will also seek legal advice so as to try and have the clauses amended.”
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