Police silent over day of reflection enforcement

A law banning the publication of political material a day before the election also applies to internet posts but lawyers are questioning its practicality. Stephen Tonna Lowell and Michael Zammit Maempel said the law’s wording was wide enough to encompass the internet, even though when it was drafted in 1991 a public-access internet did not even exist. Apart from a clear reference to traditional print and broadcast media, the law mentions “any other means of communication”. The legislator wanted the law to cover any other new means of communication that may not have existed in 1991, according to Dr Tonna Lowell. The traditional media have long observed the law but the onset of internet campaigning in the 2008 election created a conundrum as to whether the General Elections Act also applied to the web. While this question has been answered, the proliferation of blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites since then has raised questions as to whether traditional media have been put at a disadvantage. Dr Tonna Lowell said the police could prosecute those who breached the law without waiting for a complaint. But while it was easy to determine whether traditional media...