It is now once more the turn of Beppe Fenech Adami, deputy leader of the Nationalist Party, and David Lindsay, the editor of The Malta Independent on Sunday, to be at the wrong end of the stick of the powers that be.

At face value their cases are very different but on closer examination one notes that the root of all their troubles is very similar. Their horrible crime is that either they, or their party (in the case of Fenech Adami) or their newspaper (in the case of Lindsay) displeased the government. This is totally unacceptable in a free, progressive and liberal democracy such as ours is touted to be.

Fenech Adami is one of the staunchest critics of the government from the Opposition benches. He does not mince his words. He is no pushover in any debate. He speaks in season and out of season. Criticising him is fair. Verbal sparring with him is legitimate. Scrutinising every move of his and holding him accountable for it is to be expected.

But trying to allege that he had something to do with money laundering is an obscenity of the first degree. Fenech Adami is not a perfect man, but he is honest and upright – a true son of his father. And as a true son of his father he will not be deterred, but he will come out stronger.

The reason behind the latest assault on Fenech Adami should be clear to everyone. The grand entrance of the LNG tanker in the Marsaxlokk Harbour, the resurgence of the debate about the Panama scandal, the constant referencing to the Premier and Gaffarena bonanzas at our expense, the Algerian and now the medical visas scandal needed a diversion. Fenech Adami is that diversion. There were others before him and there will be others after him whether the election will be held later on this year or next year.

I do not know Lindsay in person. I know him as the editor of a paper that throughout the years has embarrassed both sides of the political divide. In the last couple of years, as is to be expected, it embarrassed the government more.

But isn’t it in the nature of things that government – whichever and wherever – is a greater target than the Opposition for investigations by the journalistic media? Moreover, when corruption becomes the second nature of a government, is it not the role of the press to cry ‘foul’ more often and with greater emphasis?

Trying to allege that Fenech Adami had something to do with money laundering is an obscenity of the first degree

The Scottish campaigner Jimmy Reid used to say that “the task of the media in a democracy is not to ease the path of those who govern, but to make life difficult for them by constant vigilance as to how they exercise the power they only hold in trust from the people”.

Criminal libel is the weapon with which Lindsay is being persecuted. Ironically, he is being targeted this way by a person of trust at high echelons of the government when the same government said that it wanted to do away with criminal libel.

Legal persons I contacted said that the police were not obliged to toe the line even if the request came from a person of government’s trust and a former police commissioner.

Then I referred to the learned and very well researched sentence (one of several such learned sentences) given by Magistrate Joe Mifsud in the case of the police versus Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi. It was a case of defamation not criminal libel but the point made by the magistrate is just the same valid for this case. Magistrate Mifsud made it clear that each institution is expected to shoulder its responsibilities without passing them on to others. If the police believed that there was no case against Azzopardi they should not have moved ahead just because the office of the Attorney General told them to do so.

Likewise, the police should have heeded those words and refused to participate in an action against Lindsay, which is clearly of a vindictive nature.

There is a very worrying context that throws light on this action by the police. This is just one in a series of actions against people in the media.

The journalist Norman Vella was arrested by the police because he allegedly took photos of the head of Government Communications at the Office of the Prime Minister when the latter was in a public place. The decision of then police commissioner Zammit (who is also responsible for the criminal libel against Lindsay) to personally defend the case in court confirms that Vella’s arrest was sanctioned by the top brass. Vella won, the commissioner lost.

Ivan Martin, the Times of Malta journalist, on the other hand was arrested by order of a magistrate. The ‘crime’ committed by Martin was that he went to the court to report on a party taking place in the court room of the same magistrate where smoking was just one of the irregularities taking place.

The police wanted Saviour Balzan and also Peppi Azzopardi to reveal sources, a capital sin for journalists. Then it was the turn of Daphne Caruana Galizia. The lawyer representing a Cabinet minister wanted the court to declare that she is not a journalist and consequently should be forced to reveal her sources or possibly face prison.

All this shows that Fenech Adami and Lindsay are not alone. This is not a question of one solitary swallow. There is a flock. Unfortunately it is not a summer by the sea nor a spring renewing nature that these swallows herald. They point towards a wintery threat against the basic freedoms of those who dare speak.

We have been there before. We prevailed. It will not be any different now. That is why only cowards dare not speak.

joseph.borg@um.edu.mt