Leaders urge respect on social media
Archbishop Charles Scicluna speaks to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat during an exchange of festive greetings at the Archbishop’s Palace in Valletta. The Archbishop and the PM earlier met with President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca. They all spoke of the need for more respect to be shown on the social media. Photo: Baskal Mallia
Archbishop Charles Scicluna yesterday said that nobody should pay with their lives for expressing themselves.
The Archbishop met with President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca to exchange New Year’s greetings at the President’s Palace.
During their discussion, Archbishop Scicluna, clearly referring to the brutal assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, said: “No one should pay with their life for expressing themselves, it is a price too steep to pay.”
He added that “it is important for the public to scrutinise.” “How are we going to defend freedom of expression?” he asked.
Also remarking on the murder, President Coleiro Preca spoke of the need for constitutional reform. “What happened issues merit to begin the process of constitutional reform,” she said, adding that the reform “has been a long time coming.”
“We need a constitutional reform where the public is involved,” she said. The constitution is a document that is alive and reflects the needs of the state and the public.”
The main discussion between the President and the Archbishop centred around freedom of expression and hate speech, and both expressed the need to moderate social media comments and the comment boards of news portals in their annual exchange of New Year’s greetings.
Archbishop Scicluna said that he “appreciated” the President’s talk on hate speech and said it should be “moderated in all environments.”
“Media portals should moderate their comments and prevent those which are aggressive,” he said.
Referring to hate speech as verbal violence, President Coleiro Preca emphasised that hate speech is not the same as freedom of expression. “Excess is bad in all forms,” she said, agreeing that “the media should unite and take a stand against hate speech.”
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat also exchanged greetings with the President. He spoke on the money collected during L-Istrina, saying that this showed that the people would not allow anyone to sow the seeds of division among them.
He also gave a brief overview of the work the government hoped to achieve in the next year. A major focus, he said, would be regulating rental rates to protect citizens.
The government will not be heavy-handed but it will not leave people to suffer the consequences of soaring rent, he said.
The President said this was music to her ears.
Muscat says agreements between him and Archbishop outweigh disagreements
Muscat and the Cabinet later exchanged greetings with the Archbishop at the Archbishop’s Palace in Valletta. Muscat and Scicluna reinforced the message of respect on social media. “On social media we should show more respect towards each other and work together for the best practice of media.”
He added that it is “urgent because it creates social tensions.” “We don’t need to be ridiculed to be scrutinised,” he said.
In his greeting to the Archbishop, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said that he believes that the two agree more than they disagree, “despite the fact that sometimes in the media it seems otherwise,” adding that the Church and government work together “in everyday life.”
The Archbishop agreed that there is a “working relationship” between the government and the Church and said the latter appreciates the “religious freedom to carry out our mission.”