Stumbling block looms in Pullicino Orlando’s attempt to gag blogger

Former Nationalist MP Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando’s legal attempts to stop Daphne Caruana Galizia from blogging about his whereabouts could be thwarted, as internet service providers are not – as he is arguing – obliged to block “menacing” content. 

His judicial protest could also fall foul of new EU rules on net neutrality, that specifically forbids ISPs from throttling online content. 

However, Pullicino Orlando – currently chairperson of the Malta Council of Science and Technology – told MaltaToday that he will be holding ISPs responsible if robbers break into his home, following a “tip-off” from Caruana Galizia’s blog. 

“I realize that I’m a public figure and that I should be open to scrutiny, and I would have no problem if Daphne Caruana Galizia were to make up stories about me, if she were to write that I’ve slept with half the women on the island for example,” he said. “However, I draw the line when she writes about my whereabouts in real-time, as that could be a signal for thieves that I’m not at home. I have a right to my personal life and a right not to have criminals tipped off into robbing my family. I don’t feel as though my kids should be exposed to criminality at their home, just because Daphne Caruana Galizia considers my going out to eat with my friends as newsworthy.”

Pullicino Orlando on Wednesday filed a judicial protest against competitiveness minister Manuel Mallia, the Malta Communications Authority and ISPs Go, Vodafone and Melita, urging them to rein in the practice of harassing public figures through blogs, which he said was being “disguised as journalism”. 

The protest invokes an obscure code of conduct for electronic provision signed by Go and Vodafone back in 2008. His lawyers, Edward Gatt and Veronique Dalli, have zoomed into a clause which states that “content that causes annoyance, threatens harm or evil, encourages or incites crime, or leads to public disorder is considered menacing in nature and is prohibited”.

Mallia refused to speak about the case or the implications of Pullicino Orlando's legal arguments, telling MaltaToday that he will not comment on ongoing court cases. 

However, MaltaToday is reliably informed that the code itself was by no means drafted to protect people from potentially harmful online content. Rather it was introduced to safeguard children from illegal or nuisance spam-mail and communications, such as through chatrooms.

Indeed, the code itself specifically states that it “covers visual and audio content… provided by [Vodafone and Go] through their communications technologies directly or as a platform for content created by recognized third parties”. 

“As [Vodafone and Go] cannot control unrecognized third parties, they are not able to guarantee or monitor content served by [them].”

Moreover, EU member states and ISPs have since last April been legally obliged to observe net neutrality, meaning that they cannot block online content or give preference to profitable online traffic. 

Pullicino Orlando, a former Nationalist MP turned rogue, has long been a target of ridicule on Caruana Galizia’s blog. According to the blogger, his judicial protest was triggered after she uploaded a Facebook photo of himself and his girlfriend and personal assistant Lara Boffa saluting at the Checkpoint Charlie site in Berlin. 

However, Pullicino Orlando was adamant that he didn’t file the judicial protest to safeguard his own reputation, but rather to protect his family from potential robberies.

“I’m not so stupid as to post Facebook statuses when I’m not at home real-time, but Caruana Galizia effectively advertises the fact that my house is empty,” he told this newspaper. “She doesn’t only get her information from my Facebook account; once she uploaded an article that I was at a restaurant while I was still there, and another time I was on an airplane and saw a passenger taking a photo of me [that was later uploaded onto Caruana Galizia’s blog].”

The science council chairman said that he is a believer in the freedom of the press, but that a line must be drawn somewhere. 

“If I was dining with the dictator of Turkmenistan, then I would understand the news value of it, but how is in the public interest to know when I’m at a restaurant with my friends or on holiday with my children?” 

He warned that he will hold ISPs responsible if his house gets robbed when he’s not at home, arguing that while they “have better things to do” than monitor Caruana Galizia’s blog, they are now aware of the problem. 

“I had complained about this with the police commissioner once, and he had advised me to speak to Caruana Galizia herself about it. I tried to speak to her, but she chose to remain sensationalist.”