Birdlife Malta has condemned what it described as the hunting community’s campaign of bullying and harassment to curtail people’s right to freedom of speech.
The hunting association has lodged complaints with the police accusing individuals who have posted comments on the timesofmalta.com of defamation. It is understood that the police have received at least nine complaints from the FKNK filed against individuals, Birdlife said in a statement.
The individuals who posted the comments are now being subjected to the threat of criminal proceedings against them for expressing their opinions.
The comments posted on timesofmalta.com were:
“Our police are greatly outnumbered by hunters. It is impossible to keep up. I do not agree with invasion of privacy but if hunters are breaking the law over and over again what do we expect? If an area is prone to illegal activities it is going to be surveyed by CCTV cameras and so on like Paceville.”
It is deeply worrying that the police are having to spend their limited resources investigating these complaints
“Being Maltese and proud of it means preventing criminals, not encouraging them. FKNK has exposed itself as nothing more than a front for people who want to break the law and get away with it. The only people who have any objection to this monitoring are those who want to break the law”
The comments were posted in response to the deployment by the Committee Against Bird Slaughter (with the cooperation of the Malta Police Department) of a radio-controlled plane to uncover illegal trapping sites in spring 2012.
Birdlife executive director Steve Micklewright said the hunting community was bullying and harassing people by trying to prevent a referendum to abolish spring hunting and now they appear to be attacking their fundamental right to freedom of speech too.
Mr Micklewright added, “It is deeply worrying that the police are having to spend their limited resources investigating these complaints when they are unable to control the acts of illegal hunters.”
Birdlife called on the public to show their contempt by signing the petition to call for a referendum to abolish spring hunting.
Mr Micklewright said more than 45,000 people have now signed the petition.