Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1527021
2 NEWS maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 25 SEPTEMBER 2024 2 MATTHEW AGIUS magius@mediatoday.com.mt Manuel Delia challenges gag order on Daphne Caruana Galizia murder discussions MANUEL Delia has asked the Criminal Court to reconsider the blanket ban it imposed on public discussions about the assassina- tion of Daphne Caruana Galizia and the person accused of com- missioning it on broadcast and social media, in order to prevent further weakening of Maltese de- mocracy. This emerges from an appli- cation filed before the Criminal Court earlier today by lawyers Evelyn Borg Costanzi and Mat- thew Cutajar on Delia's behalf, in which it is argued that the prohi- bition imposed on the reporting of Fenech's unsuccessful attempt at obtaining a Presidential pardon was too wide in scope, unneces- sary in a democratic country and breached the right to freedom of expression. Fenech's 2019 pardon request, which had subsequently been rejected at Cabinet level, was a publicly known fact which had been subject to a great deal of media coverage at the time. This fact was highlighted in Delia's application to the court, which provides URLs to stories docu- menting it from MaltaToday, the Times of Malta, the Malta Inde- pendent and the Shift News. Fenech had never tried to hide the fact that he had requested a pardon either, pointed out De- lia's lawyers. In fact he had dis- closed it himself in constitutional proceedings which he had filed in 2020, in which Fenech had contested the admissibility of Assistant Commissioner Keith Arnaud's notes as part of the evi- dence against him. One of the grounds Fenech had raised in that case was that "the information had been provided to the police on a confidential basis with the aim of being given a presidential pardon…" Fenech had lost that case with the court ruling that the request was pre- mature, in view of the fact that he was simultaneously making the same complaint to the Criminal Court as part of his preliminary pleas. The accused himself had also filed a sworn application to be- gin separate court proceedings, in which he was requesting an administrative review of the deci- sion to refuse his pardon request. The lawyers argued that the or- der goes beyond the parameters imposed by the law, under which a court could ban reports on pro- ceedings. While the law empow- ers courts of criminal jurisdiction to prohibit the publication of "writings, both printed and not, about the crime…of which the defendant is accused," in her de- cree, Madam Justice Edwina Gri- ma had also prohibited "public declarations and discussions on broadcast media and social me- dia." This, Delia's lawyers said, meant that until Fenech's trial's start date, of which there is currently no indication, nobody could dis- cuss or make declarations relat- ed to either the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia or to the person accused of that assas- sination. It also meant that even facts which had been unequivocally established during other pro- ceedings which have since been decided, and which were raised by the accused himself of his own accord, such as the pardon re- quest, could not be reported on or discussed either. "It is being respectfully sub- mitted that the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia has enormous significance to demo- cratic life in the country and the undersigned feels that any re- strictions on discussing it could not but translate into a weaken- ing of the fourth pillar of Malta's democracy, where not only does the media have the duty to deliver opinions, ideas and information about everything which could be in the public interest, but where the public also has the right to receive that information as laid out in article 10 of the Europe- an Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms." ECHR jurisprudence had es- tablished that a breach of fair hearing rights could not be de- clared in advance of the hearing itself because of negative public- ity, said Delia's lawyers, "unless it amounts to a 'virulent press campaign' according to constant jurisprudence by the European Court - something which defi- nitely does not exist in this case." It was pointed out that jurispru- dence had established that even in cases where a "virulent press campaign" had taken place, this does not necessarily always trans- late into a breach of fair hearing rights. Delia also informed the court that he was one of the organisers of annual events which mark the anniversary of Caruana Galizia's murder, which are normally also broadcast and reported on by the Maltese, European and interna- tional press. He said the request for the lifting of the ban was also being made so as to ensure that the anniversary can be observed this October and that "those who wanted to campaign for justice to be done, both to Caruana Galizia as well as to her stories, are able to do so". Manuel Delia argues that a blanket ban on public discourse about the murder and the accused undermines Maltese democracy and violates free speech rights Manuel Delia (Photo: James Bianchi/MediaToday) A 36-year-old Mġarr man will be sen- tenced in the coming days after he pleaded guilty to breaching both a re- straining order and a protection order by following his ex-wife to an event held in Siggiewi. When the man was arraigned before Magistrate Gabriella Vella on Tuesday, prosecuting police inspector Christian Cauchi told the court that the man had been arrested after allegedly following his ex-wife to Montekristo estate on Friday September 13. In doing so, the man was in breach of the protection and restraining orders, said the inspector. The prosecution also charged the de- fendant with the violation of a court order issued just 10 days before, under which the man had been bound to keep the peace with his ex-wife for the com- ing year and with insulting the woman. He pleaded guilty to the charges. Defence lawyers Ishmael Psaila and Maria Sarah Vella Gafá told the court that the defendant "could not accept that his ex-wife had moved on". The court adjourned the case to Fri- day for sentencing. Mgarr man admits to breaching protection orders A 36-year-old pleaded guilty to violating court orders by following his ex-wife to an event, with sentencing set for Friday MATTHEW AGIUS magius@mediatoday.com.mt