Opinion: Spin dictators

The era of fear dictators is almost over.  We’ve now moved into the epoch of spin dictators.

Fear dictators used violence to oppress their people, intimidate the opposition and maintain power. PN clubs were regularly attacked and repeatedly burnt by Labour thugs.  Dissenters were beaten up at the Malta drydocks and even in public schools.

The Opposition Leader’s house was ransacked by Labour bullies in 1979 when Labour was in power after fake news circulated that somebody shot at Dom Mintoff.

Eddie Fenech Adami’s wife was viciously beaten, thrown to the ground and kicked repeatedly.  Her earring was ripped from her ear. Her children jumped onto their neighbour’s roof to escape as thugs threw their school books out of the balcony onto the street.

The Archbishop’s Curia bore the brunt of the violence of “the aristocracy of the workers”. The Special Mobile Unit, a police branch trained by North Korean agents, repeatedly used truncheons on PN supporters.

The police shot at those supporters in Rabat.  Armed Labour diehards, backed by police,  attacked PN supporters at tal-Barrani to prevent them from entering Zejtun where a mass-meeting was to be held.

Raymond Caruana was killed, and the State framed Pietru Pawl Busuttil for that murder.

The intimidation and harassment of government critics continue. The only difference is that instead of fearing dictators, we now have spin dictators.

While pretending to be democratic, they use ‘democratic’ tools to harass critics and silence dissent. According to Sergei Guriev and Daniel Triesman, the authors of Spin Dictators, the goal of spin dictators is to appear to allow political competition while making it near impossible in practice.

Labour has been widely wielding the bluntest methods to silence dissent. Some of the dirty work of making critics’ lives hell is outsourced to an army of trolls to allow Labour a degree of deniability. Labour has Manuel Cuschieri, who publishes Jason Azzopardi’s home address, the site of his reserved parking space and his private vehicle number plate.

It has Neville Gafa, who viciously targets critics with falsehoods and brazen lies.

It’s got ONE News and Kulħadd, both engaged in an endless campaign of demonisation of government critics.

But now Labour has upped the ante. Labour’s latest crusade is against “abuse of free speech”.

Minister Jonathan Attard condemned those who “abuse freedom of expression”.  Ironically, he mounted his attack in parliament during a forum on media and information organised by Opposition MPs.

“One regret I have is that we have not yet acted robustly to protect the victims of those who abuse freedom of expression,” Attard said.

“We must be aware of the realities of victims of those whose only aim, without a shred of decency, is to damage individuals,” he added.

Jonathan Attard warned us:  “Yes, there is still much to be done, and we are determined as a government to continue to be pioneers of further reforms”.

Yet those reforms are already here. On 3 October, the minister introduced a Bill for its first reading before the House of Representatives. He proposed “an Act to amend various articles in the Criminal Code with a view to introducing additional provisions regulating and imposing criminal liability for the misuse of electronic communication.”

He’d been beaten to it by Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan.  Like Robert Abela, Erdogan has long accused journalists of “fake news” and being “part of the establishment”.  He made the publication of “disinformation” on social media a crime punishable by up to five years behind bars.

Jonathan Attard’s Bill proposes “imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a fine not exceeding €10,000 or both”.

That will certainly send a chill down journalists’ and writers’ spines.  Attard’s new article on the Criminal code is titled “misuse of electronic communication network or apparatus to transmit misleading information or spread false news”.

It’s almost copied straight from Erdogan’s legislation. The Venice Commission denounced Erdogan’s law, but it did not notice Attard’s because it was conveniently hidden among provisions on human trafficking and the Schengen information system.

The justice minister’s new article is straight out of the autocrat’s playbook.  “Whosoever, knowingly with intent to cause harm… or with intent to spread false news… or otherwise make use of an electronic communication network or apparatus for any of the purposes mentioned above shall be guilty of an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to imprisonment.”

Labour is criminalising “false news”. Attard is criminalising “misleading information”.  And who gets to decide what’s  “false news” and what’s “misleading information”? Such vaguely worded articles in the criminal code are intended to be exploited – by the ruling party.

Attard’s new article has two objectives: to chill speech and to jail critics.  That article threatens the investigation, conviction, and imprisonment of citizens simply by posting on social media or even sending an e-mail.

Labour is clearly seeking to expand the types of speech that can be considered criminal with the objective of inflicting auto-censorship and jailing those who “abuse freedom of expression”.

Labour wants to criminalise libel, increase penalties, and now introduce a two-year jail term for “false news.” They want to put a lid on dissent.

Labour is using its arsenal of deceit and intimidation to maximum effect.  Its powerful coalition of ONE news, PBS, Kulħadd, the DOI and its army of trolls has been incredibly effective at keeping Labour dominant and its power secure.

Now, it’s hijacking the criminal code to rip away at the fundamental right to free speech. As Abela’s hold on power becomes more tenuous, Labour’s assault on democracy will only accelerate.