Privilege complaints rejected

The Speaker of the House of Representatives yesterday turned down breach of privilege complaints made by Labour MP Joe Mizzi against the newspaper In-Nazzjon, Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi, Radio 101 and the newspaper The Malta Independent.

Mr Anton Tabone said there was no breach of privilege in the second, third and fourth cases.

As for the case against In-Nazzjon over a parliamentary report on July 6, Mr Tabone said the first paragraph was unfortunate as it could have given the impression that Mr Mizzi had, when speaking in parliament, assumed responsibility for political discrimination when it was clear from his speech that he had assumed political responsibility for what happened in the Gharghur antenna case in 1998 but denied that there was political discrimination. This was however clear from the heading and the rest of the report.

This case, therefore, did not constitute a breach of privilege because it did not contain the elements of wilful and recklessness publication of a false or perverted report as laid down in the Privileges Ordinance.

Mr Tabone urged the press to always report the proceedings of the House faithfully.