A group of 150 people with disabilities and their relatives have filed a formal complaint asking the police to investigate claims made during a television programme that linked disability with sin.

They are arguing that the claims, made by singer and TV personality Phyllisienne Brincat during the programme Popolin, constituted hate speech and were discriminatory. 

They demanded that the police investigate, and then prosecute Brincat - and anyone else responsible - over hate speech and for inciting hate speech against people with disabilities.

Their complaint was linked to the episode aired on October 4 when Brincat claimed that illness and disabilities were the result of original sin. Her comments sparked a backlash.

What did Brincat say?

Brincat, who is a self-proclaimed avid believer in God, was a guest on the TVM programme which discussed the topic of religion. During the programme presenter and producer Quinton Scerri interrupted Brincat and referred to a conversation they had off-air before the programme in which she “linked illness with sin”.

Brincat explained that illness was the result of original sin. (Original sin is the Christian teaching of mankind’s sinfulness because of Adam’s fall from grace. According to the teaching, all people are corrupted by Adam’s sin through natural generation, which means all people enter the world guilty before God.)

Scerri then asked whether a couple who had a child with a condition was due to the ‘fruit of sin’ and Brincat again referred to original sin as written in the Old Testament.

Scerri then asked if the alleged sin could impact children and Brincat made reference to her sister who has Down Syndrome. That was when a member of the public, Jacob Callus who identified himself as a person with a disability, said that claiming that a person was born with a disability as a result of sin was offensive and increased stigma.

Brincat insisted on her argument of original sin.

Last week, the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability filed a formal complaint with the Broadcasting Authority over the television programme. The commission said it was unacceptable that the programme allowed this discourse to be aired during prime time and on a popular programme on the national television station.

The CRPD said all this amounted to a breach of the Standards and Practice Applicable to Disability and its Portrayal in the Broadcasting Media as well as a breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Brincat's previous controversy

This was the second time that Brincat has waded into controversy concerning disability. In 2019, she aired a video she claimed showed children with autism being "cured" through prayer.

Last month a man was fined €10,000 for posting an offensive meme on Facebook that denigrated people who have Down Syndrome.

The then Commissioner for Persons with Disability, Oliver Scicluna, reported the meme after it was uploaded on a Facebook group called “Uncensored Jokes Malta” in April 2020, saying it appeared that he wanted to denigrate and insult a category of the population that has Down Syndrome.

The meme had a picture of an unidentified person with Down Syndrome, with the caption stating: “Website is Down” and a reply “Oooh, me too!”

Lawyers Desiree Attard and Bryony Balzia Bartolo signed the complaint.