MALTA
Malta Independent
Alison Bezzina
Sunday, 2 November 2014
Every time a member of the clergy is accused of sexual abuse, exactly the same series of events is played out. First, the allegations are made public, then we learn that the case has been in front of the Curia’s (NON) response team for ages, then he is charged and arraigned, and then the ‘non-judgmental’ types come out from whatever dark corner they’ve been hiding in and start to defend the presumption of innocence. They argue, usually until they’re blue in the face, that we cannot try someone in the court of public opinion and that everyone should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. They even argue that the name of the accused should not be made public.
For reasons explained by the editor of this news portal, The Malta Independent chose to publish the name of the latest priest to be accused of sexual abuse. Other sections of the media decided not to and, legally, they are both in the right.
Whether to publish names or not is entirely at the discretion of every editor but, quite frankly, I’ve had it up to here with blind defenders of the Church who are only up in arms when the accused happens to be a priest.
In other cases, when the names of defendants are plastered all over the media before their case is decided, we hardly get anyone crying out for privacy or defending the presumption of innocence, do we?
Where are these people when Erin Tanti is being torn apart on discussion boards?
Where were they when the Mosta cat killer was charged?
Where were they when Minister Owen Bonnici was being told to resign before his case had even been heard, let alone decided?
Let me be frank from the start: I never, not even for a second, presumed that any of the priests accused of sexual abuse were innocent. If you think this is shameful, then so be it, but for me to assume them innocent I would also need to assume that our police force and Attorney General are idiots, which I don’t – at least not most of the time.
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