Maltese MEP, ministers come down hard on BirdLife for filing criminal complaint

Partisan antagonism stoked in Facebook posts associating BirdLife with Nationalist Party, but NGO says attacks and intimidation won’t stop it

BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana
BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana

BirdLife Malta has condemned attacks levelled against the organisation by two government ministers and a Labour MEP after filing a complaint with the Commissioner of Police requesting the withdrawal of hunting licences issued illegally by the Gozo ministry.

The conservationists insist that all licences for this year’s spring hunting season were invalid because they were not issued by the environment minister, as prescribed at law.

“This is an untouchable right guaranteed by Malta’s Constitution, and which BirdLife Malta will continue to fulfill, regardless of who is in government,” BirdLife CEO Mark Sultana said.

In a Facebook post, Labour MEP Alex Agius Saliba and the economy minister Silvio Schembri, himself a hunter, took to task BirdLife for filing a criminal complaint, by associating the NGO with the Nationalist Party in a bid to stoke up partisan antagonism

“Since its inception in 1962 BirdLife never had any political goal or aim. BirdLife Malta embraces hundreds of members with different political views, and has always worked hand in hand with different governments with one sole interest: safeguarding Malta and Gozo’s natural environment,” Sultana said.

“It is a pity that because BirdLife Malta is working to ensure that Malta’s natural environment is protected so that Maltese citizens enjoy a better quality of life and we have a truly modern European state, you still find politicians – whatever side they are on – who openly attack our work in a clear attempt of intimidation which was also intended to incite hatred against BirdLife Malta and its officials.”

A 2015 referendum in which thousands of people voted on whether spring hunting should be abolished was narrowly lost with a few hundred vote in Malta.

“Back then there was a political commitment – by then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat – that Malta’s natural environment would be safeguarded and environmental laws enforced. Unfortunately this is not happening today and police are not even doing what is expected from them because they don’t even have the time to perform their duties in the national interest and as required by the country’s laws, apart from the lack of adequate resources that they have been equipped with,” Sultana said.

BirdLife Malta called on political leaders to appreciate the altruist and valuable work carried out by environmental NGOs without any compensation or personal benefit.

“In contrast to others, BirdLife Malta and other eNGOs are not privileged, and they don’t for instance enjoy the privilege of roaming the countryside with a gun shooting at any bird which flies over the Maltese Islands,” Sultana said.