The Nationalist Party knowingly risked exposing the filmer when it decided to publish a video illegally filmed inside the court building
Illegal court video: PN exposes filmer, then declares ‘full solidarity’
On Monday, former PN MP and lawyer Jason Azzopardi was charged with filming a video inside the law courts without permission.
The 6-second video was taken near Hall 19, shortly after a court ruling that empowered the State Advocate to recover funds from Steward Health Care.
It was published on Facebook by the Nationalist Party’s Net News, which claimed the clip showed the prime minister and justice minister discussing a “partisan strategy”.
The video itself barely shows anything of actual news value and delivers no hard proof on what Net News claimed in its reporting.
PN must have known it would expose filmer
Net News told NEWZ.mt on Monday afternoon that “a journalist has a duty to publish any video which he believes is in the public interest. There is nothing illegal in publishing such video”.
“The fact that the government is prosecuting someone who the Prime Minister thinks filmed a video of him while rewarding those who steal from public office speaks volumes about the government’s priorities”, Net said.
Nationalist Party secretary general, Michael Piccinino, added that the party’s station “is not at liberty to discuss its sources”.
However, the PN fell short on commenting the fact that Net News must have known that publishing the short video would lead to exposing the person who filmed it:
The corridors inside the courts of justice are – as all media outlets and their editors perfectly know – covered by CCTV, making it easy for the court administration to match illegally filmed videos with CCTV recordings.
Yet, the Nationalist Party expressed its “full solidarity” with Jason Azzopardi in a statement issued shortly after his arrest on Monday afternoon.
The PN however pointed out that under Robert Abela “action is taken swiftly and in record time only when it targets someone who criticises him”.
It seems the opposition is still in denial that its very own partisan approach to “journalism” has massively facilitated the government’s legal action.
