Robert Abela orders journalists to act responsibly

On its 90^th anniversary, The Times of Malta organised a conference themed ‘Can journalism survive the attack on the truth?’ and to answer that question, they invited the most vicious enemy of the truth – Prime Minister Robert Abela. And he didn’t disappoint.

After paying lip service to quality journalism, its crucial role in our democracy, and why journalism deserves protection, he showed his true autocratic colours.

His thinly veiled threat followed:  “In the same way, the victims of those who abuse freedom of expression deserve effective remedy.”

On a day when journalism was meant to be celebrated, Abela publicly accused journalists of “abusing freedom of expression” and of “harming individuals unjustly”.  He warned journalists that they “must also act responsibly”. 

Acting responsibly, for Abela, means not uncovering wrongdoing, abuse and potential crimes committed by those in power – particularly his ministers and himself. 

Abela emphasised “the great responsibility that journalists have to be fair”.

“Fair” to him means not publishing damaging revelations about him and his government. It means parroting his government’s propaganda without criticism and without question.

Abela, only months ago, changed the magisterial inquiries law to make it practically impossible for citizens to request magisterial inquiries.  As soon as he walked out of parliament, on 15 January, he lashed out at journalists, referring to them as the “forces of darkness”, “fake news”, “evil”, and “hypocrites”.

When incriminating stories were published about Clint Camilleri and Silvio Schembri and magisterial inquiries were requested over their alleged abuse, Abela threatened journalists, “They have to pass over my dead body… I will not let them destroy my ministers.”

Abela claimed that Ministers Camilleri and Schembri were being investigated “because there is a fake news blog, Shift News, who specialise in reporting falsehoods. 90% of what they report contains falsehoods”.  He argued that those “fake news” reports were being used to open magisterial inquiries.

Abela’s vitriolic comments sparked a barrage of offensive, abusive and threatening social media comments from his supporters against journalists and The Shift in particular. Abela was inciting his loyal followers against media houses and journalists.  And it worked.

Now he’s declared that “quality journalism” deserves protection. But doubled down on his intimidation and harassment of journalists, accusing them of “abusing freedom of expression” and of “harming individuals unjustly”. 

When he lashed out at The Shift in January, Reporters without Borders (RSF) roundly condemned Robert Abela’s attempt to discredit The Shift. They lambasted his dangerous rhetoric.

Those aren’t the words of a defender of journalists, they’re the spiteful venom of an autocrat determined to crush independent journalists and their investigative work.

The European portal Mapping Media Freedom registered Abela’s attack on The Shift as a threat to press freedom.

The Shift’s editor, Caroline Muscat, sued the Prime Minister for defamation. But Abela is guilty of far worse. 

Abela even encouraged other journalists to “study this phenomenon of The Shift and others like them because their only agenda is to push falsehoods and deceit”. 

Abela didn’t just launch a vicious assault on an independent online news portal that has become somewhat of a thorn in his side. He was sending an intimidating and threatening message to everybody else. 

That message was loud and clear – if you expose Labour’s scandals, you will become a target. We will hound you, slander you, destroy you.  

That is not the language of a democratic leader of an EU member state.  That is the rhetoric of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Belarus’ Alexander Lukashenko, Azerbaijan’s Ilham Aliyev, or North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. 

Robert Abela isn’t interested in protecting journalism and journalists. He’s determined to tame them into submission with threats and intimidation, or public funding and government advertising revenue.

At The Times’ conference, Abela tried to portray himself as the champion of journalists. He pointed out that he had launched a public consultation on media reform as an example of his government’s pro-journalism work.  That public consultation led nowhere. 

It was just a show, an orchestrated facade intended only to give the deceitful impression that something was being done while achieving absolutely nothing. 

Abela bragged that Malta was the first to adopt anti-SLAPP legislation (lawsuits that cripple newsrooms financially).  The truth is that the Council of Europe found Abela’s anti-SLAPP legislation to be woefully inadequate.

Abela tried to lecture journalists about their role.  “The responsibility of journalists is to inform the public while ensuring that individuals are not unjustly harmed… and the large majority of journalists achieve this balance”.   As for the rest, Abela will deal with them according to how he sees their job impacting his government. 

Abela decides who is a responsible journalist and who is abusing freedom of expression.   Abela decides who is informing the public and who is unjustly harming individuals. 

Abela decides who is engaged in quality journalism and who is pushing ‘fake news’.  He determines who is publishing the truth and who is pushing “falsehoods and deceit”. 

Abela wants to protect Labour-friendly “journalism” but will stop at nothing to silence truly independent journalists for one simple reason:  The biggest threat he faces is the truth.