Updated | BirdLife questions minister's links with hunting lobby

BirdLife Malta has questioned home affairs minister Manuel Mallia’s links with the hunting lobby, in a press conference this afternoon.

BLM director Steve Micklewright said that a letter sent to BirdLife in the immediate aftermath of the judicial protest filed against Chris Packham by the FKNK was copied to Dr Kathleen Grima, who works for the minister’s law firm, Emmanuel Mallia and Associates.

Packham, the presenter of BBC's Springwatch, was in Malta to document the widespread nature of illegal hunting. During one of his expeditions in Mizieb, Packham was confronted by hunters who claimed that their privacy was being breached.

Micklewright said that the letter, sent by the FKNK, was an attempt to make BirdLife Malta responsible for any breaches of data protection made by Packham, but the BLM director stressed that they should never have been involved, given that Packham was not a member of BirdLife.

“Emmanuel Mallia is of course the minister for home affairs.” Micklewright said. “His portfolio includes the police and public broadcasting service. It clearly should be a matter of public concern that legal procedures initiated by FKNK that involves the police and other entities are coming from the law firm of the minister responsible,” he said. “We are calling for this apparent conflict of interest to be investigated by the government.”

Mallia has denied having any form of role in his former legal firm. "The minister does not form part of the firm, and he recieves no form of retainer from the company and therefore has no conflict of interest in this case. The minister categorically deniesthe allegations and does not interfere in the police's investigations," a statement from the home affairs ministry said.

Micklewright also took exception to an announcement, made earlier today, that a television program regarding the reality about Maltese traditional hunting and live bird trapping will be broadcast this Saturday, in place of the second half of Moira Delia’s Animal Diaries on PBS.

The programme is being aired as a ‘right-of-reply’ following complaints lodged by the FKNK on the edition of 12 April.

The press conference was held at Simar nature reserve in Xemxija (Photo by Ray Attard)

During the same press conference, BirdLife’s conservation manager Nicholas Barbara issued figures which indicated that the legality of hunting had not had any effect on the prevalence of illegal hunting. Since spring hunting was made legal in 2010, after a court of justice ruling prohibited it in 2008 and 2009, the number of dead or injured birds had remained high.