Updated | Labour 'not on right side of history' over censorship

Updated at 8:22pm with ministry statement.

As government embarks on a relaxation of censorship laws that will give theatre producers the right to set their own audience age limits for productions, Labour MP Owen Bonnici said the reforms can only be complete with an updated definition of what is considered to be "obscene" material as laid down in the Criminal Code.

The government yesterday responded to the public outrage that followed the ban on Unifaun Theatre's production of Stitching, by removing the film and stage classification board's jurisdiction over theatre productions and giving producers the right to set their own age limits for their audiences.

But last year also saw university student Mark Camilleri and writer Alex Vella Gera being tried in court on obscenity charges for a short story Camilleri published in his pamphlet Realtà. Their acquittal is now subject to an appeal by the Attorney General.

"Labour expects the removal of censorship on theatre productions is followed by the updating of Article 208 of the Criminal Code that defines what is obscene material," Bonnici said.

Bonnici said the government had taken up Labour's advice, changing its route when it came to laws regulating the freedom of expression for film and theatre productions.

"However I ask whether this is just an opportunistic move, give that government has staunchly defended the country's censorship laws, without ever coming out in defence of those who suffered this censorship... as happened on the issue of divorce, Labour is once again on the right said of history."

"We believe in a society that is not scared of books but embraces and celebrates literature. Freedom of expression and arts should prevail over censorship concerns. In a new Malta, the artist has an important role," Bonnici said.

In a reaction, the tourism ministry said Bonnici's claims of Labour being on the right side of history were put paid by the party's historical opposition to broadcasting pluralism, the censorship of Eddie Fenech Adami's name in national broadcasts when he was Opposition leader in the 1980s, the censorship of the word 'nazzjon' (effectively preventing the PN from using its own newspaper masthead), censoring foreign speakers through the Foreign Interference Act, and "censoring" Maltese people's right to become EU members.

The appeal filed by the Attorney General argues that national book award runner-up Alex Vella Gera admitted to having written his short story Li Tkisser Sewwi "on impulse" and "without any form of self-censorship".

"He was free to write what he wanted without self-censorship," Attorney General Peter Grech said in the appeal. "But the author must realise there are others living with him, whose ideas, preferences and tastes are unlike his; a society that must be protected, and its morality preserved. And there's God above everything and above everyone, and God is certainly bigger than the biggest of egos of even more famous writers."