Updated | PM’s aide stands by Facebook swipe at Archbishop, PN wants action

One of the Prime Minister’s aides, the former One News journalist Glenn Bedingfield, has attempted to associate Archbishop Charles Scicluna with a suggestion of paedophilia, in a Facebook status that takes a dig against the head of the Maltese church.

In a Facebook post, Bedingfield – appointed to Muscat’s side on a person-of-trust basis – was reacting to Scicluna’s statement on PBS’s Reporter where he felt Joseph Muscat’s New Year’s message had been ill-advised.

“The Archbishop augurs that when the Prime Minister enters a kitchen, it would be a real one,” Bedingfield said of Muscat’s much-criticised fiasco. “At least the Prime Minister did not enter some child’s bedroom.”

In a comment to MaltaToday, Bedingfield stuck by his right to express himself freely. "Freedom of speech is there for all to enjoy and everyone has the right to comment and be criticised for such comments."

The Opposition joined in the fray, demanding that the Prime Minister take action against the publicly-funded official. "This man is a consultant to the prime minister, who should shoulder responsibility and do some something about this kind of language. The public expects him to stop this race to the bottom and put an end to his government's mediocrity."

The PN also said that amongst its 109 proposals for good governance, public officials will be required to comport themselves as required by their public role when speaking in public or on social media.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna put his two cents' worth into the controversy surrounding the Prime Minister’s New Year’s video message, insisting that Joseph Muscat “should not have to put on an act”.

“The next time he visits people in their kitchen, I hope it will be for real,” Scicluna said on Monday night’s edition of Reporter when asked for his opinion on Muscat. The much-maligned video featured Muscat visiting the kitchen of a young couple, who claim to have benefitted from the Labour government’s tax-exemption scheme for first-time home buyers. However, it was later revealed that the young man is actually the son of the owner of renowned furniture company Construct Furniture, and that he had purchased his house with his wife back in 2008.

“There is simply no need for the Prime Minister to put on an act,” Scicluna said.

This is not the first time Bedingfield, who handles the co-ordination of Parliamentary Questions in the OPM’s PQ Unit, has been found guilty of some controversial foot-in-mouth comments.

Earlier in February 2015, Bedingfield retweeted a tweet by @Islamlie2, a successor to the blocked Twitter account for Stop Islam, an Italian Facebook group that has just 48 likes.

The tweet, in Italian, read: “The only difference between the Koran and the Mein Kampf was that the latter was more ‘moderate’,” suggesting that Adolf Hitler’s manifesto for Nazism, in which he insisted that Jews forcibly be pushed into Madagascar, was more moderate than Islam’s holy book.

Bedingfield is a former One News journalist who ran unsuccessfully in the 2004 European Parliament elections. He was elected to the EP in a bye-election for Muscat’s seat when the new Labour leader vacated his MEP’s seat to take up a seat in the Maltese parliament in 2009.