When three Rapid Intervention Unit police officers reportedly manhandled a Hungarian man, Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela said no action would be taken against them pending an internal inquiry. Then, when asked why public officials were immediately suspended on the basis of a newspaper report that accused them of ‘spying’ for former shadow finance minister Tonio Fenech, the minister said the three men had worked against the country’s interest.

That was a very serious accusation from the Home Affairs Minister but much in line with the Prime Minister’s own reaction when the first reports of ‘PN spies’ started to appear. Joseph Muscat had said: “Some people believe that they can undermine the country.”

The case revolves around three senior officials at the Central Bank, the National Statistics Authority and the Malta Financial Services Authority who formed part of an Internet Google Group called Finance Shadow Group.

This group, which included members from the private sector, advised Mr Fenech on economic policy. E-mail exchanges between the adviser group members and Mr Fenech have been leaked to the media and released in doses in recent weeks. Two of the officials were reported to have been suspended from work.

The accusations of espionage and betrayal of the country were levelled at these three men in every subsequent media report, with Labour deputy leader Toni Abela and MP Charles Mangion joining the fray and accusing the three officers, who work with autonomous organisations, of breaking civil service directives. The campaign against them became so intense that it prompted PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami to remind Labour that the livelihood of three fathers was being threatened.

With the leaked e-mail exchanges being selectively released, it is difficult to determine what exactly was the ‘sensitive information’ the three men were meant to have leaked. The information appears to have included employment statistics, retail figures, public sector employment and debt of public sector companies. Such information is normally released in official statistics, so the major complaint from whoever released those e-mails was that Mr Fenech somehow obtained the information before the Finance Minister.

It is up to the internal inquiries within those individual authorities to determine whether the officers broke their internal code of ethics. But beyond the issue of ethics, it cannot be said that advising an Opposition spokesman is tantamount to espionage or betrayal of the country.

Mr Fenech was discussing policy on that Google Group and, naturally, seeking ways to score political points. That he reportedly received information before the Finance Minister is to his credit, at least politically. Through his team of advisers, Mr Fenech built arguments that criticised government policy. The government is not the State and criticism of the government is not a betrayal of the country.

In advising the PN spokesman, the three officials may have breached their code of ethics. But does this make them spies? It would be stretching the argument to answer that in the affirmative.

Labour in government would do well to avoid such dramatic talk of espionage and betrayal as this vocabulary harks back to former Labour administrations.

The government and the media that supports it should keep things in perspective because – although they may be guilty of breaching their code of ethics – the officers concerned are private individuals and, therefore, have a right to express their political allegiances without intimidation and accusations of treason.