The Maltese Notarial Council has strongly condemned Labour propagandist Emanuel Cuschieri’s attack against one of its members, Repubblika President Robert Aquilina.

In a statement, the council described Cuschieri’s actions during his programme, broadcast on social media, as “despicable”.

It reminded Cuschieri that any person or entity has the right to freely choose a practising notary from the official list published in Malta’s Government Gazette and that such notary has an “indisputable right to be paid for their services”.

The council was referring to the allegations made by Cuschieri, in which he attempted to discredit Aquilina and Repubblika Vice President Alessandra Dee Crespo by claiming they were also given work by the Catholic Church, as a notary in Aquilina’s case, without considering their public campaigning “against everything Labour”. He also asked whether Aquilina was paid for his notarial services.

In its statement, the council reminded Cuschieri that notaries’ services as public officials are protected by law and demanded that Cuschieri publicly apologise to Aquilina, “who has every right to exercise his profession without any form of intimidation.”

Repubblika also issued a statement condemning Cuschieri’s attack. In their statement, Repubblika reiterated that it will not be intimidated by such attacks nor stop the NGO from condemning “the filth unfolding around us.”

The NGO added that Cuschieri’s time would be better spent speaking unequivocally against fake jobs and about those being paid thousands to do nothing except keep quiet and refrain from causing trouble. “That would do more good than trying to deprive someone of the job they do for an actual living.”

Repubblika concluded their statement by saying that they expect Robert Abela to condemn these attacks by Cuschieri publicly and will interpret the prime minister’s silence as consent.

Emanuel Cuschieri, who now broadcasts his messages to Labour followers on his Facebook page, is part of a well-oiled propaganda machine that continues to characterise independent media, civil society organisations and any form of public scrutiny as part of a conspiracy hellbent on bringing down the Labour Party.

He is frequently deployed as an attack dog against government critics to rally Labour supporters when the government is engulfed by scandals or discontent.

In October last year, as many local and international organisations were launching a series of events in the run-up to the fifth anniversary of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination, Cuschieri was busy targeting some of these events, presumably to deter people from participating.

This included the seminar being organised by NGO Repubblika in collaboration with the Fondazione Giovanni Falcone and the activity for youths at St Paul’s Missionary College, an event that several schools were invited to attend.

In Cuschieiri’s view at the time, discussing the challenges faced by Malta’s public institutions is akin to the political persecution of the Labour Party.