Mark Camilleri "loves the Republic" and has not shied away from    endorsing the Republic Day honour awarded to him on Friday in    recognition of his campaign against Malta's censorship laws    which, as irony would have it, are yet to be changed and    brought well into the 21st century.  
    It was not the only irony of the day.  
    Republic Day under the new Labour government was a celebration    of a wide array of people who had served the country, from the    Armed Forces' maritime unit to the winners of the Junior    Eurovision Song Contest. But while it toasted transgender    Joanne Cassar, who fought government in the European Court of    Human Rights for refusing to recognise her right to marry a    man, it handed an honorary honour to former USSR ambassador    Valentina Matvienko, the Russian Federation Council speaker who    approves the Saint Petersburg assembly law project, that    penalizes gay propaganda.  
    Yet it was Alex Vella Gera's refusal of his own medal for    service to the republic, that stole the show. Like Camilleri he    was nominated for his role in the censorship debacle provoked    by his short story 'Li Tkisser Sewwi', that embroiled the two    men in an criminal obscenity case that illustrated much that    was wrong with Maltese law-making.  
    "I cannot accept an honour from the Maltese political class    which, apart from some exception, has been causing so much    damage to my country," Vella Gera, who lives in Brussels,    announced on Facebook. "I feel I've made the right choice not    to involve myself in this farce, where someone who is given a    national honour becomes a pawn in the insidiousness of the    Maltese political game."  
    The 25-year-old Mark Camilleri rose to prominence when a    student pamphlet he edited, entitled Ir-Realt, was reported to    the police by the University of Malta rector Juanito Camilleri,    specifically for the short story 'Li Tkisser Sewwi' penned by    published author Alex Vella Gera. To the public's general    outrage, the two men faced obscenity charges and faced jail,    but they were acquitted by both the criminal court and the    court of appeal. The subject of censorship became a TV mainstay    in 2011 and 2012, and Camilleri fronted the Front Against    Censorship.  
    Camilleri, a history graduate who is pursuing his academic    studies, was not forgotten by the Labour government, accepting    the role of chairman of the National Book Council earlier this    year.  
    But although his absent-mindedness saw him failing to even    attend Friday's award ceremony, Camilleri has defended his    decision to accept the award Vella Gera renounced.  
    "I love the Republic and I say this with utmost moral and    political conviction: this is a Republic founded on left-wing    principles and on the struggle for freedom, against colonialism    and poverty," Camilleri wrote on his blog yesterday. "I believe    that we should celebrate the Republic in many ways possible,    including by giving awards to distinguished individuals who    have contributed in a way or another to the development of our    Republic."  
    He said he accepted the award with profound humility, saying he    did not consider himself either "distinguished" or able to    reach the heights of the men and women who led the struggle    that resulted in the Republic: Manwel Dimech, Guze Ellul    Mercer, Dom Mintoff, Agatha Barbara and the Dockyard workers  
Original post:
‘I love the Republic’, says anti-censorship campaigner