Hunters to sue BirdLife employee over ‘public false accusations’

The hunting federation intends taking legal action against a BirdLife Malta employee for what it claims are “public false accusations”.

The action stems from an exchange of statements regarding a mock Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) logo depicted on the UK’s Knutsford Ornithological Society (KOS) website. It read: “Visit Malta. Errr, sorry I don’t think so”, and the UK group had included a link to the BirdLife Malta website, before the logo was removed.

In an earlier statement, the Federation for Hunting and Conservation had denounced the damage the logo caused to the tourism industry. It also claimed KOS had removed it after the federation alerted the tourism authority on September 29 and the MTA put pressure on the UK group.

The federation said a UK resident had posted a link to the KOS site on the Birdlife Malta Facebook page on May 31 and cited this as proof that BirdLife was indifferent to the “damage” to Malta’s tourism caused by bird conservationists drawing attention to illegal hunting.

BirdLife ’s Geoffrey Saliba then issued a counter-statement saying the FKNK’s claim was false and that the federation persistently hid behind false accusations, adding that it was “widespread illegal hunting and illegal occupation of public land that continues to damage Malta’s reputation abroad”.

FKNK now intends to sue Mr Saliba over this statement, saying this was another false accusation in support of BirdLife ’s recent theatrics aimed at the federation’s legally occupied hunting reserve at Miżieb.

BirdLife holds that the logo was in fact removed after BirdLife was alerted to it by a member of the public. It contacted the UK group to explain that it does not support a tourism boycott and instead encourages bird conservationists to visit Malta and join its Spring Watch and Raptor Camp.

It released a copy of e-mail exchanges between Mr Saliba and the KOS from September 29 and 30 to verify its claims. The e-mail exchanges conclude with KOS confirming it had removed the logo and link after Mr Saliba advised it to do so.

Mr Saliba did not wish to comment when contacted but a BirdLife spokesman said: “It is ironic that FKNK all of a sudden feel libelled after BirdLife clearly debunked their unfounded allegations by providing evidence”.