Fr Joe Borg slams reports as ‘bullying’
Media studies lecturer Fr Joe Borg described MaltaToday reports that 'outed' anti-divorce movement correspondence as 'bullying', adding it was unacceptable and urged people to 'resist it'.
Fr Borg was speaking during a call-in interview on a radio programme broadcast on
He reacted to reports that revealed that he suggested that parish chaplains forward them a list of separated couples and children from broken marriages to speak “intelligently” against a law on divorce.
Fr Borg dismissed the reports by saying that his actual words on separated couples and their children were “twisted and misrepresented in a Machiavellian way” and that the reports needlessly use blunt and emotive language.
Asked about the ethics of publishing personal correspondence, Fr Borg conceded that in the case of information that is “in the public interest”, he too would most probably make the decision to publish.
“In this case, I won’t comment on whether the emails were in the public interest or not, as I am directly involved,” Fr Borg said, but he claimed that the way the story was presented was unethical because of the way it misrepresented his words.
Standing by his advice to the Zwieg Bla Divorzju movement in that they should secure couples and children to speak “sensibly” about divorce, Fr Borg said that children are directly affected by divorce, and so, should be given a voice.
He reiterated that he did not mean that the movement should try to get minors to speak on the subject, adding that while “at a certain age children should be provided with information about divorce, at a certain (younger) age, they should be kept out.”