Justice Ministry mum over shelved cyber abuse Bill

A Bill that would’ve seen the criminalisation of cyber abuse has remained shelved for over two years, with no indication of whether this could be enacted into law.

Discussions surrounding the Bill have once again cropped up following yet another femicide where the victim died at the hands of her former partner. Victim Nicolette Ghirxi had reported her aggressor to the police over emailed insults months prior to her murder.

The emails, seen by MaltaToday, were threatening and insulting towards the victim. Ghirxi’s aggressor, Edward William Johnston, was also believed to have shared intimate photos of his ex-partner.

Proposed for the first time in 2021, the forgotten Bill stated that anyone accused of cyberbullying “ought to know that it will cause physical or mental harm to another person, including self-harm or arouse apprehension or fear in the other person for his or her own safety…”

The Bill would provide victims of abuse on digital platforms, with legal protection.

Despite this, the Bill’s broad wording, especially surrounding the word “offensive” meant that it could easily have been used to clamp down on freedom of speech.

At the time, the Opposition had voiced its concern and warned the Bill should not be an excuse to silence those who want to participate in a public debate, as it was stated that the Bill could see the return of a form of criminal libel.

The Bill made its way to the second reading stage of Parliament, but following the 2022 election, newly elected justice minister Jonathan Attard had announced that government intended to review the Bill before tabling it again.

Shortly after his election, Attard stated, “The principle that cyberbullying and cyberstalking should be criminalised remains the same, but given the concerns raised during the parliamentary debate, I will review the legislation and table an amended version in due course.”

Earlier this year, Malta’s Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli successfully piloted a set of proposals which were made into a directive which criminalises physical violence, as well as psychological, economic and sexual violence against women across the EU, both offline and online.

The directive saw that the most widespread forms of cyber-violence will be criminalised under the new rules, including the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, deepfakes, cyber-stalking, cyber-harassment, misogynous hate speech and “cyber-flashing”.

Government is yet to transpose the directive into Maltese law.

MaltaToday asked the Justice Ministry whether it plans to table its own Bill in Parliament, as well as to explain why it had been shelved, but no replies were given.