The angry reaction to the sexist comments made by former footballer Costas Malekkos during a television interview on Sunday night was understandable. We have not heard such backward ideas on television for many years. They were so extreme they could have been considered as something of a joke, which is what Malekkos claimed they were when faced with the public outcry.

Among other things, Malekkos had said that women “have to accept that the man is in charge” and that “he is allowed to do whatever he wants.” He also came up with the gem that “men are men, end of,” also telling women that “when your husband isn’t a man at home, you’ll divorce him.” His views were so silly they were not worthy of comment, let alone the public outcry that followed.

Akel women’s wing, Pogo, reported the former player to the police chief, the justice minister and the law commissioner among others, while Gender Equality Commissioner Josie Christodoulou said that such terminology, promoted sexist and patriarchal attitudes. The Single Parents Associations took great offence, saying the comments “took us 100 years back,” and “divorced women are not prostitutes,” nor “would they sit idly in marriage while they are beaten.”

Malekkos later apologised, saying that his intention was not to insult or mock the role of women in the modern age. He said he was engaging in humour as he was appearing on a light entertainment show. It was a pitiful attempt at being funny, and the uproar that followed was understandable, but did it justify the police investigation that was undertaken?

The police confirmed on Thursday that an investigation had been ordered into possible violations of legislation against sexism, after a formal complaint had been filed by Pogo. Pogo claimed that intentional acts or expressions of sexism, as defined by law, constituted a criminal offence. There must be some suspicion of violation of the law for the police to carry out an investigation, but what type of law criminalises the expression of views, however outrageous they might be?

Have our deputies actually passed a law that places limits on the right of free speech? Malekkos may have said some very stupid things on air, but surely, he was exercising his right to free speech. It was quite astonishing in fact, that the Single Parents Association criticised Alpha TV, which broadcast the interview, for not cutting the offensive comment from the show that was pre-recorded. It wanted the television station to practise censorship, because the comments were offensive.

A dangerous precedent is being set. A political organisation reporting someone for his opinions to the authorities (and the police carrying out an investigation of the man who caused offence) is an attack on the freedom of expression, as was the suggestion that a TV station should have censored the comments of a studio guest. Has everyone forgotten that we are living in a free and democratic country, or should we now expect a police investigation whenever some expresses a view that does not have the approval of the moral majority?