Aditus calls on PM to condemn Joe Grima over ‘vulgar and offensive’ Facebook hate posts

The aditus foundation yesterday called on the Prime Minister to take action against Joe Grima, who is currently serving as Malta’s special envoy to the World Tourism Organisation, over derogatory comments Mr Grima made about the foundation and its director, Neil Falzon, on Facebook.

On Friday, in the wake of a report on the state of integration of third country nationals in Malta, released by the foundation, Mr Grima let loose with a tirade of abuse against the foundation, which, in a letter sent to the Prime Minister, aditus director Neil Falzon described as “vulgar and offensive” in his and the foundation’s respect.

One choice comment cited by Dr Falzon read: “Min ghandu dawn il-veduti estremi mhu xejn hlief stupratur indecenti tal kultura u t-tradizzjonijiet taghna. Postu hi fid detention centre…” (“One who holds such extremist views is nothing less than an indecent rapist of our culture and traditions. His place is in a detention centre”). There was much more to the tirade which this newspaper prefers not repeating for the sake of decency.

Dr Falzon noted that since the Facebook posts were exposed by our columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia on her blog yesterday afternoon, the posts have been taken down. He added in his letter: “…yet of course you must understand that we will not be interpreting this convenient removal of the posts as either a retraction or an apology.”

He adds, “Due to Mr Grima’s position, and your Office’s legal and moral responsibility for it, we therefore urge you to ensure that appropriate and public action is taken against him and his statements. “As a minimum, we expect that Mr Grima be required to publish and retain public a clear apology directed at aditus foundation and myself as the organisation’s director. Secondly, we will be looking forward to your Office issuing an equally clear condemnation of Mr Grima’s statements, indicative of Malta’s zero tolerance of hate speech and of attacks on civil society organisations.”

Dr Falzon also notes in his letter how Friday’s report: “…is essentially an invitation to Malta to initiate a frank discussion about themes that so far are generally publically approached with aggression, negativity, insults and high levels of misinformation. aditus foundation’s function and role, as a civil society organisation, is to stimulate debate, encourage rapprochement and reiterate values and principles.”