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maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 1 MAY 2019 3 NEWS KURT SANSONE SOCIAL housing should not be inherited from one genera- tion to another, Joseph Mus- cat said as government mulls a policy change for new units. "Social housing should be there for those who truly need it," the Prime Minister said at the end of a Cabinet meeting held at St Vincent de Paul. He insisted it made no sense that a house given to an indi- vidual in need ended up be- ing inherited by children who would have moved on in life. The special session focussed on the social sector and the media was invited to cover the initial presentations. Social Policy Minister Michael Falzon gave an overview of his minis- try's work. Muscat said the policy change linked to social housing will not impact those who benefitted from social housing in the past but only apply to new units. The government is current- ly building some 1,000 units across Malta to use as social housing. Muscat said Cabinet had ap- proved a new equity sharing scheme to help separated and divorced people who individu- ally could not afford a new house after the split. Social housing will no longer be inherited - Prime Minister JAMES DEBONO RETIRED magistrate Carol Peralta has resurrected a pro- posal he first made a decade ago to construct a three-star aparthotel over 5,500 square metres of fallow agricultural land in Mellieha. The hotel is being proposed outside development zones, opposite the Luna hotel along Triq Marfa next to the Omm il-Hniena cemetery. Peralta declared full ownership of the land in question. The proposed develop- ment would include 118 guest rooms over six floors, four re- tail shops, a restaurant, two bars and lounges, a gym and two pools. It would also in- clude 38 parking spaces in basement levels. If granted a permit the hotel would be the first ODZ hotel development to be approved in the area since 2010, when the Planning Authority issued a permit for the DB group's 340-room extension of the Sea- bank hotel in Ghadira bay. Peralta may not be the only the only one to have an inter- est in the project. Plans for the hotel project submitted to the PA by architect and former Labour MP Charles Buhagiar on 12 March indicate Joseph Gaffarena as his 'client', but plans submitted on 23 April indicate Peralta as the 'client'. But the proposal is bound to create controversy due to its take-up of ODZ land. In his career, Peralta sur- vived two impeachment mo- tions as well as reports that he belonged to a masonic lodge. Peralta served for 13 years on the UN Interim Mission in Kosovo with jurisdiction over war crimes and organised crime, before stepping down from the bench in 2015. Former magistrate eyes Mellieha hotel inside ODZ Former magistrate Carol Peralta wants to build a 118-room hotel on ODZ land along Marfa Road CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Ellul delivered judgment in the appeal filed by the Data Protection Commis- sioner against a decision of the Informa- tion and Data Protection Appeals Tribu- nal which found that the photos were in breach of the Data Protection Act. The court rejected the Data Protection Commissioner's appeal. In a comment Jeffrey Pullicino Or- lando told MaltaToday that he was con- tent with the decision. "It is an impor- tant decision which reconfirms what I always said about Caruana Galizia and cyber bullying. I never said I am not a public person, but I could never under- stand why Caruana Galizia sister Helene (Axiaq) would come up to me on a pri- vate holiday with my children and snap pictures of me." Pullicino Orlando argued that none of the instances he was photographed had a reflection on his public role. "Often she would publicise that I was on holiday making it more than obvious that I was not at home. Over a period of 16 years she published live pictures of me when either eating or in a public place, and at no point did this have anything to do with my public role." Pullicino Orlando had filed a complaint with the Data Protection Commis- sioner over a series of photos published on Caruana Galizia's blog, however the complaint was rejected. The commis- sioner had decided that no violation of Pullicino Orlando's data protection rights had occurred. In that ruling, the commissioner said: "This decision has been reached after taking specific account of the facts that the complainant is a public person and the reported activities did not happen in a secluded place which is exclusively available to the data subject." The commissioner had also argued that the posts did not "reveal or expose any pieces of personal data which the general public could have never become aware of". The case was then considered by the Tribunal who found that the publication of all but one of the photos breached the provisions of Data Protection Act relat- ing to the processing of data. The tribunal sent the case back to the commissioner and ordered that it be re- considered. On the remaining photos the tribunal said that the information published by the blogger on her blog was "mere gos- sip (kurżita) and nothing else". It ruled that there was no aspect of public inter- est regarding what Pullicino Orlando did in his private life without it impinging on his public role. The tribunal quoted from a European Court decision which said that "activities may be classified as journalistic if their sole object is the disclosure to the public of information, opinions or ideas, irre- spective of the medium used to transmit them". The tribunal said there was no doubt that the activities carried out by Pulli- cino Orlando in his private family life did not constitute public information and their publication was not protected by the Data Protection Act or the country's press laws. Data Protection Commissioner appeal The decision was appealed by the com- missioner and the ruling on that appeal was delivered today. The court pointed to two instances in which the commissioner appeared to contradict previously made observations about whether the photos constituted personal data and whether their publica- tion could be considered the processing of that data. In deciding the appeal, the court point- ed to the fact that the legal definition of personal data was broad enough to in- clude the uploading in real-time of a per- son's geographical location. Moreover, Caruana Galizia receiving the photos and uploading them to her blog constituted the processing of that data. The court stressed the need for a bal- ance between freedom of expression and one's right to privacy. "A balance must be found between the two fundamental rights. Obviously, where there is, for ex- ample, a debate of public interest, there can be little scope for the restriction of one's right to disseminate information because the public has a right to know," observed the court. It further said that it had "no doubt that [these particular posts about Pullicino Orlando] are nothing more than gossip that interests those with nothing bet- ter to do and who have a thirst for news about people's private lives". Judge Ellul ruled: "The court, without hesitation, declares that there is no pub- lic interest in readers having that sort of information about [Pullicino Orlando]." 'Mere gossip and nothing else', tribunal says of photos published by Caruana Galizia

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