AZZOPARDI DENOUNCES CENSORSHIP

Together with 28 other authors, male and female, Mario Azzopardi signed a statement for the media denouncing censorship.

The media had described 2009 as "the year of censorship in Malta". Censorship throughout 2009 included the banning of a play by Anthony Neilson, prosecution of Carnival revellers who dressed up as religious persons, the banning of a sex story published by a students' paper (with the editor being charged for obscenity) and also the (ridiculous) order by the Police for the removal of two naked dummies from a shop window.

It was actually the banning of the students' paper and the news that its editor would be criminally charged for spreading "obscene material" that provoked the 29 authors to issue their protest and post it to all media. 

Azzopardi has gone on record several times denouncing censorship, describing it as an indictment against the cultural level of the people and an insult to their intelligence. At the same time, while stressing the absolute right of publication, he shoots down sensationalist literature which is out to make a fast buck at the expense of material containing much more substance. "What we are missing is the authoritive voices of literary critics to assess what is being produced: they have retreated to a position of non-commitment and their hibernation is an ominous sign in itself, since they have vacated the field for speculators and charlatans to take over."    

It is agreed even by official sources, including the Ministry of Education and Culture that censorship laws in Malta are archaic and should be radically revised.