The Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability has filed a formal complaint with the Broadcasting Authority over the television programme Popolin for allowing comments that linked disability with sin.
The complaint was filed over a programme aired on TVM on October 4 during which singer and TV personality Phyllisienne Brincat claimed that illness and disabilities were the result of original sin. Her comments sparked a public backlash.
Brincat, who is a self-proclaimed avid believer in God, was a guest on the television show Popolin on TVM which discussed the topic of religion.
“Such discourse - only intended to spread disinformation, incite discrimination. stigma, violence and hatred against people with disabilities - was unacceptable in any form let alone on the public broadcaster,” the CRPD said.
Language used was "disgusting"
In the complaint, the commission claimed that the programme allowed “discriminatory and disgusting” language that could also be deemed as hate speech towards people with disabilities and their families.
As it outlined the facts, the commission noted that 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 increased the dose” when he 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, the CRPD said.
"It was unacceptable that the programme allowed this discourse to be aired during prime time and during a popular programme on the national television station."
Scerri then asked if the alleged sin could impact children and Brincat made reference to her late sister who had 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.
In a patronising tone, Brincat insisted on her argument of original sin, the commission said.
The CRPD insisted that what was aired was language that linked disability directly with sin. It was unacceptable that the programme allowed this discourse to be aired during prime time and during a popular programme on the national television station.
This was further amplified when the programme was made available on-demand and snippets of the episode in question was aired on social media pages where they were circulated further reaching thousands of people.
The CRPD said all this amounted to a breach of the 'Requirements as to Standards and Practice Applicable to Disability and its Portrayal in the Broadcasting Media' as well as in breach of the 'UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities'.
This was the second time that Brincat waded into controversy concerning disability. In 2019, she aired a video she claimed showed children with autism being "cured" through prayer.
Lawyers Desiree Attard and Bryony Balzia Bartolo signed the complaint on behalf of the CRPD.