Ir-Realtà editor confident ‘common sense will prevail’

Ir-Realtà editor Mark Camilleri, who was acquitted by Magistrate Audrey Demicoli from obscenity charges on the content of a short story in the pamphlet, said the Attorney General’s appeal was “weak”.

Speaking at a press conference organised by the Front Against Censorship, Camilleri said he expects common sense to prevail.

 “I assume that since the evidence presented by the Attorney General and his argument is weak, we should win the case,” he added.

Camilleri also hit out at the University’s Student Council (KSU), accusing its President of “hypocrisy”. He said that before the court’s judgement, KSU had all the time and opportunity to come forward with a stand, but it didn’t.

“The fact that it only waited up till now to say something, shows its blunt hypocrisy. Speaking now is useless,” Camilleri said.

Front Against Censorship spokesman Ingram Bondin said the Attorney General’s appeal is a textbook case of “ultra conservative argumentation” and “legal paternalism”.

“We believe it is unfair in that the Attorney General tries to link the story to the oppression of women and corruption of minors, in order to profit from the association this has in people’s minds,” Bondin said.

The Front accused the Attorney General of “scare-mongering” while his appeal does not differentiate between fiction and reality: “it demeans individual rights, it presents religious arguments as if they should have any legal bearing and attempts to take control of language of public morality by making it one and the same with confessional mentality.”

Bondin claimed the Attorney General’s appeal resorts to rhetoric, to blow things out of proportion: “We cannot help but express our deep disappointment at this gross display of public resources being used for witch hunts rather than for more serious matters.”