Byron’s lunacy

“This restriction impacts directly not only on the right to freedom of information but also on freedom of movement,” the Court concluded as it denied Minister Byron Camilleri’s appeal and ordered his ministry to pay all court expenses.

Camilleri’s ministry was condemned for stifling fundamental human rights – the right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to information.

As part of its crusade to keep citizens in the dark, Labour uses our money to trample on basic freedoms. Camilleri was contravening Article 41 of Malta’s Constitution, which establishes the right to expression and to information.

Labour chose to pick a fight with the international human rights organisation Access Info Europe, which aims to protect and promote freedom of expression and works to assist journalists and civil society organisations.

The organisation sought basic information from Camilleri’s ministry about the repatriation of migrants as part of a Europe-wide study.  No personal data was requested.  All EU member states – as well as the UK, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – provided all the information willingly.

Only Byron Camilleri refused. He had to find some excuse to withhold such basic information.

He rifled through the law to pick one – that the person requesting the information had not lived in Malta for five years.

Labour intentionally misinterpreted the law based on where a comma was placed in the legal text with one objective  – to withhold information and deny basic human rights.

Access Info Europe was flabbergasted.  Why was this tiniest of European states refusing to provide the basic information all other EU states and non-EU states willingly provided?

What was Labour hiding? Why all this secrecy? Is Labour still protecting Neville Gafa?

Access Info Europe took its case to the Information and Data Protection Commissioner. The Commissioner concluded “the legislators’ intention was unequivocally to restrict such rights to persons residing in Malta for at least five years”.

That legislation was passed under a PN administration led by Lawrence Gonzi. His parliamentary speech made it crystal clear: “We should give this right primarily to those who live in Malta, European citizens and even citizens of non-EU countries with a reciprocity agreement with the EU.”

Does that sound like a legislator intending to restrict those rights? But since when was Labour interested in upholding the spirit of the law?  It’s only interested in misrepresenting laws for the explicit purpose of crushing human rights.

Access Info Europe went to the Appeals Tribunal.  The Tribunal overturned the Commissioner’s ruling supporting Byron Camilleri’s decision to withhold information.

Access Info argued that Camilleri was contravening Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 42 of the Charter for Human Rights, Article 15 of the EU treaty and EU Regulation 1049/2001. No mean feat.

EU treaties highlight the importance of transparency as part of good governance and active participation in democratic life. As an EU member state, Malta was obliged to adopt European standards of transparency.

But Labour’s default position is anti-democratic.

Labour was never European in spirit.  It fought tooth and nail to keep us out of the EU, and when the country voted to join, Alfred Sant, with Joseph Muscat’s help, attempted to steal that victory from the nation.

Both subsequently took up their lucrative seats in the European Parliament. Muscat later abused Malta’s EU membership. He sold passports like a night watchman allowing people into Europe via the backdoor for a bribe.

Labour only endorsed the financial rewards of EU membership but refuted the freedoms membership guarantees its citizens.

Labour retains its Soviet autocratic approach to information and human rights. It’s no different from the Labour of the Foreign Interference Act.  Its motivation remains the same – oppression.

Openness and transparency are anathemas to Labour.  Labour is synonymous with contempt for free speech and disdain for fundamental freedoms.  It resists all requests for information, squandering taxpayers’ money to deny us our rights.

Byron wouldn’t accept the Tribunal’s decision. He challenged it in court.

Through his Assistant Director Stephen Vassallo, Camilleri argued that no information should be given to Access Info – because the individual requesting it hadn’t resided in Malta for five years.

He insisted the Tribunal should deny the organisation’s right to freedom of information and should apply his distorted interpretation of Maltese law and “not the law of other member states”. Labour hasn’t realised that EU law is not the law of a foreign state; it’s our law.

In his cynical appeal, Camilleri attacked the Appeals Tribunal for ruling against him.  Byron’s assistant director maintained the Tribunal shouldn’t have looked at Gonzi’s parliamentary speech to reach its decision.  He accused the Tribunal of being “wrong, illogical and legally flawed”.

The Court wasn’t impressed.

Refuting Camilleri’s arguments, it stated the obvious: “The Maltese legislator did not intend to create a law which is different from that of all other EU member states.”

It insisted that “Gonzi’s speech specified that the right to freedom of information was being extended to all EU citizens and citizens of non-EU countries with reciprocity agreements with the EU.”

In September 1990, a PN government had the foresight to sign up to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which states: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers.”

It also had the courage and determination to battle Labour’s misinformation campaign and make Malta an EU member state, ensuring its people benefit from the protections afforded by EU law.

That precious foresight is our last protection against Labour’s malicious attempts to deny us our most basic freedoms.

The court quashed Byron Camilleri’s efforts to trample on human rights. It turned down Labour’s perverted appeal – and condemned the Home Affairs Ministry to pay the costs.

But sadly, we will be paying the financial and reputational costs of Byron’s lunacy.