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Matthew Vella
Unfazed by the heinous arson attack on columnist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s residence early yesterday morning, adherents of neo-nazi Norman Lowell yesterday hit out at journalists in their reactions on the www.vivamalta.com internet forum.
Describing columnists as “mere rabble rousers” and “not worth the ink used to print their garbage”, members of Lowell’s Imperium Europa yesterday were unrelenting in hitting out at the press while discussing the latest arson attack on a journalist.
“The real threat to freedom of expression is the great number of journalists who do not do their work well, or hide the truth,” a member wrote in the internet forum.
It was Norman Lowell himself to first post the news on the forum that the columnist’s residence had been the target of an arson attack. Shying away from condemnation, the far rightist took umbrage at seeing that the attacks were being linked to racist and xenophobic reasons:
“For the last time: We do not condone such acts. We do not condone vile violence. Now, Daphne probably has more enemies than the editor of MaltaToday. And yet, immediately: Racists! These incidents are hurting US! And nobody else, but The Right. A chi giove questo incidente?” Lowell wrote.
In an earlier post on 6 April, Lowell himself described Caruana Galizia, along with Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina, as “two destructive women in positions of influence”.
Earlier on 27 March, he reacted to an opinion written by Caruana Galizia on detention centres in Malta by saying she had shown “unbelievable self-hatred and spite towards her people. She has reached a point of no return. She cannot turn back – otherwise she will lose ‘that’ face! She is finished: intellectually. Traison de clerk: the treason of our intellectuals: the betrayal. How sad – how many lamposts!” he wrote, referring to other messages in which he threatens columnists with death: “They will all pay for their treason. They will all wish they were never born. There are not enough lampposts”
Other members wrote to condemn the attacks, but showed annoyance at having “racists” accused of the arson. One user claimed it was “patently obvious” that “pyromaniacs” were “targeting journalists who are outspoken”.
In a clear defensive tone, the same person said, “cowards go around burning other people's property. We are not cowards,” adding that journalists who were possible targets of “pyromaniacs” should install CCTV cameras.
More spurious comments on the right-wing website followed, with one user saying Caruana Galizia would have an excuse to blame racists for the attack, adding that the criminals were “damaging the image of those who want to save this island”, referring to Lowell’s motley crew of fascists.
Another member said Caruana Galizia had been given the “opportunity to act like Saviour Balzan and play the martyr on the altar of free expression” referring to the arson attack on the MaltaToday editor two weeks ago.
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
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