T-shirts placed on statues by activists promptly removed by Heritage Malta

● T-shirts worn by statues in stunt by Occupy Justice removed by Heritage Malta within hours

Before the sun rose on the 16 January, to mark three months since the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, pressure group #Occupy Justice placed tshirts on statues around Malta in an attention-grabbing stunt.

In the morning, the group posted a collection of the photographs of the different statues on the social media, with the caption: ‘Prime Minister even the dead are watching you; history will judge you’.

The T-shirt depicted a portrait of Daphne Caruana Galizia and her chilling final line which reads ‘Crooks everywhere. The situation is desperate’.

At lunchtime, a few hours after the stunt, The Malta Independent went to sites where the T-shirts were placed in order to get the reactions of the people in the area, however was quick to discover that these had been removed before people had had the chance to see them.

A youth and employee in a café facing the Freedom Monument in Vittoriosa told us that he had not seen the four figures wearing the T-shirts but “saw the picture going around on social media,” a factor which was noted amongst others in other locations; including Sliema and Valletta.

When asked how social media functions as a tool for activists within the pressure group, #Occupy Justice said that they look at all possible tools to spread their message and stated their belief that social media changes public awareness.

“Because information circulates so freely and quickly, it creates a new baseline for change,” they said. “Also, social media technologies have changed the psychological impact of communications by changing our expectations about participation.

“The ability to act, even if it is retweeting a Twitter post, or liking or sharing a Facebook post, allows us to feel a level of involvement in events we might not otherwise feel (or possibly have even heard of,” they continued, saying that it leads to action.

The group, who have been active throughout the past three months, raise awareness for good governance “from both sides of the House of the Parliament and in all spheres of public life and an end to this culture of impunity.”

T-shirts removed by Heritage Malta

Wondering whether it were locals in the respective localities who removed the white t-shirts from the statues, Minister for Culture Owen Bonnici later clarified to this newsroom that Heritage Malta were responsible for removing the t-shirts throughout the day.

“National monuments fall under the responsibility of Heritage Malta. Therefore Heritage Malta has the duty to maintain their physical and artistic integrity,” Bonnici told this newsroom.

The “legal considerations” linked underlining the removal of the Tshirts include offences arising from the damage or defacement of public monuments found in the Cultural Heritage Act, amongst others.

Bonnici then emphasised that the country defends the rights and value of freedom of expression whilst also highlighting that citizens have moral duties to safeguard national monuments.

The pressure group replied that they did not destroy, throw down, deface or otherwise damage the monument. “Our action was a form of protest, and in this country, every citizen has the fundamental right to protest,” they said.

Keeping true to their mission statement, they then reiterated by questioning the legality of Ministers having accounts in Panama.