The University Students’ Council KSU on Thursday apologised for dismantling Moviment Graffitti's Freshers' Week stand for displaying flyers about women's reproductive rights.

In a statement, the Kunsill Studenti Universitarji said its action was never meant to censor or stigmatise. 

Its apology comes after on Wednesday, Moviment Graffitti found its stand - displaying material linked to the NGO's campaigns about the environment, public spaces, migration, LGBTIQ and reproductive rights - had been dismantled. 

KSU president Luke Bonanno told Times of Malta the council believed that the University of Malta’s freshers' week was not “the right place to discuss such controversial and sensitive subjects". He insisted "this is not censorship". Pro-life activists had also been stopped from bringing up the matter, he said.

But on Thursday Graffitti returned to campus with a fully set up stand displaying, among others, material that touches on the abortion debate.

Hours later, KSU apologised for its action, saying Life Network Foundation should also have been allowed at Freshers’ Week. 

"Censorship was never our intention. Stigmatisation was never our intention. We regret that our actions came across this way.

"In our pursuit of a genuine and well-meaning effort to ensure this debate takes place in a more serene environment where mature and civilised conversation could be fostered, an important discussion was stifled."

The KSU added that campus should always be a forum for debate. This, it said, was a value close to the council's heart and one that drove its work, advocacy and plans for the upcoming year.