MP's comments prompt government to set up obscenities committee

The government said yesterday it would be convening a committee to discuss the definition of obscenities.

The announcement was made in the wake of comments by Labour MP Owen Bonnici who yesterday took up the case of a 21-year-old history student expected to be charged over a graphic article that was written in a University newspaper.

Two weeks ago, the police confirmed they would be taking action against Mark Camilleri, who published a graphic short story about sexual violence in the newspaper he edits, Ir-Realtà.

The paper was banned at the University and Mr Camilleri is likely to be charged with distributing obscenities and "injuring" public morals.

Dr Bonnici pointed out that the law laid down that "There shall be a committee whose functions shall be to advise the minister responsible for justice in making regulations under this article. The committee shall consist of the said minister, who shall be the chairman, and four members of the House of Representatives appointed by the Prime Minister after he has consulted the Leader of the Opposition".

Justice Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici welcomed the fact that "the voice of reason was finally prevailing over political opportunism".

He said he looked forward to presiding over the meetings of the committee to hear all the voices of society on such a delicate subject and the need to safeguard the dignity of the vulnerable and children while also controlling racism and xenophobia.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the Prime Minister would be nominating the government MPs to the committee shortly and he hoped the opposition would do likewise.

Dr Bonnici said he did not think highly of the article in question but insisted that Mr Camilleri should not be facing imprisonment over a piece of "literature".

He said the law empowered all the members of the committee who disagreed with any of the regulations made to raise the issue before the whole House of Representatives.

He pointed out that the only time that regulations defining obscenities had been published in Malta was on July 15, 1975. Since then, there had been a whole series of judgments by the European Court of Human Rights defining what constituted pornography, even within the context of freedom of expression and artistic freedom.