by Nikki Petroni

In 2015, Malta sparked a nationwide debate on censorship following the obscenity trial of novelist Alex Vella Gera and publisher Mark Camilleri. Amendments led to the abolishment of ‚vilification‘ of religion law in 2016. The ban was subsequently upheld by the Constitutional Court of Malta, ending any further possibility for redress domestically, and the theatre company turned to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Court found that the law relied on to ban the production was unclear and that the regulations allowed for unfettered power in the film board’s classification of stage productions. In his findings, the ruling Judge Küris questioned the board’s capacity “to rule on the ‘literary, artistic or educational merit’ of productions, ‘if any’, and to ban some of them as ‘not fit for exhibition’. This privilege, so indiscriminately worded, smells of discretionary censorship”.

In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights found that the banning of the theatrical production in Malta of the play ‘Stitching’ by Scottish playwright Anthony Neilson was a violation of the right to freedom of expression. The ban was issued by the Maltese Board for Film and Stage Classification because the play was deemed to be blasphemous, insulting to the victims of Auschwitz and portraying dangerous sexual perversion. The play tells the story of an unfaithful couple, who spend part of the play debating whether to have a child before Abby falls pregnant. They decide to have the child to save the relationship but, sometime later, when the child dies, their relationship disintegrates. Described as an extreme and unsettling work, the play is of a genre of works by playwrights who present vulgar, shocking, and confrontational material on stage as a means of involving and affecting their audiences.

The European Court of Human Rights ruling allowed the play’s successful staging in 2018, yet the situation caused financial strain on the theatre company.

Malta’s House of Representatives unanimously approved an artistic freedom bill on July 12, 2023. Introduced by Ministers Owen Bonnici and Byron Camilleri in June of the same year, it protects artists from prosecution and promotes broad cultural expression, with specific provisions in the Criminal Code and Electronic Communications Act. The bill focuses on credible and realistic threats in court action and safeguards online statements under artistic, satirical, or comic contexts.

The case had a wider, positive impact, with the protests against the ban playing a part in the removal of blasphemy as a crime in 2016 by a new government less influenced by religious bodies. The Maltese Board for Film and Stage Classification was also replaced by a Film Age Classification Board that would no longer be able to censor works.