BBC journalist Chris Packham. Photo: Jonathan Borg

It is evident that the government is not interested in enforcing the law, said BBC journalist Chris Packham who was on Thursday found not guilty by the court of assaulting two trappers while filming a documentary on trapping illegalities.

“What we have observed this year is a government going into an election mode and not interested in alienating part of its core vote,” Mr Packham told Times of Malta. 

In his fourth consecutive year of observing the unfolding of Malta’s spring hunting season – and producing a TV documentary about it – Mr Packham described the political will to enforce the rule of law as one of the worst.

“It seems that this year the government was not interested in enforcement and the situation has been much worse than last year,” he said.

“The system of enforcement is designed to fail with lower resources put in place when compared to recent years and two eyes being closed instead of one. For us it is obvious that since the party in government is dependent on the votes of the hunting lobby it did not want to do anything which might alienate them. On the contrary, the enforcement system is designed to appease them,” he said.

Since the party in government is dependent on the votes of the hunting lobby it did not want to do anything which might alienate them

Recounting his ordeal, Mr Packham said that last Tuesday, while filming a suspected illegal aviary in Gozo, two men, a father and his son, arrived with their cars in a public road and starting insulting him and his crew. Pushing them around, they were joined by a police officer who urged the BBC crew to leave the site and stop filming or else they would be prosecuted.

Mr Packham said that the police officer admitted that they were filming from a public road and were not doing anything illegal. Still, he said, he was taken to the police station and charged with assaulting the trappers.

“This was very disappointing to us. It’s almost a travesty of justice. Those who should have been taken to court on suspicion of illegal trapping were not prosecuted and instead the police charged us with something which we didn’t do.”

Despite the fact the court dismissed the “time-wasting” case and that the police had no evidence of any wrongdoing, Mr Packham insisted that he would not be filing a report of abuse of power by the police.

“We are not interested in wasting our time. We have published the footage of what actually took place for all to see and if the police want to take action they can proceed. However, we believe in positive progress and we have no time to waste,” he insisted.

Asked whether his actions may be interpreted as ‘provocative stunts’ aimed at increasing audiences for his TV shows, Mr Packham completely dismissed these assertions.

“That is complete nonsense”, he said.

“We never confront people or trespass on any private property. All we do is record illegalities and report it and we are very careful not to provoke anyone. We want the law to be on our side as this is the way to get justice.”

When this newspaper pointed out that they might be barking up the wrong tree, as it is the authorities who should be pressured to enforce the law and not the hunters or trappers themselves, Mr Packham insisted that they will continue to do both.

“We are using our action to create more pressure on the government and the European Commission to act. It is evident that the government does not want to act and the Commission, particularly Maltese Commissioner Karmenu Vella, is not really pushing his weight around something which he knows very well.”

“Still we will keep the pressure and ask our followers to politely write to Dr (Joseph) Muscat and the European Commission to make sure rules are observed.”

The BBC journalist said that he sought direct encounters with the Prime Minister and his Parliamentary Secretary (Roderick Galdes) but both refused requests for an interview.