In the editorial titled Birds Beware Hunters Are Out (September 5), Times of Malta blames the bad among hunters for having done so much harm to Malta’s image “today renowned as a place where anything that flies has little hope of surviving if it gets within the range of a hunter”.

Clearly intent on promoting the bad image of hunters portrayed by our local foreign bird protectionists, Times of Malta could not be more obliging to those who have every reason to portray such an image. If, indeed, the newspaper’s perception was correct, the alleged actions of 10,000 hunters would hardly leave any space in the newspaper for anything more than gory pictures of dead protected birds that infallibly follow any illegal incident.

Indeed, the few bad elements among hunters are to blame for the bad image of Maltese hunters. However, no less are the bird protectionists who infallibly make mountains out of molehills and, yet, are never criticised.

Rather than promoting an opinion on a few reported incidents and publicising it as fact, Times of Malta had better learn the shameful facts about the illegal killing of birds that occur throughout the European Union before assisting in the vilification of Malta’s image.

A report for the European Commission, prepared by the Birdlife Partnership for the Council of Europe Conference, on the Illegal Killing of Birds ( https://wcd.coe.int/com.instranet.InstraServlet?command=com.instranet.CmdBlobGet&InstranetImage=1959997&SecMode=1&DocId=1762044&Usage=2 ) undoubtedly shows Malta is no worse than any other member State.

Times of Malta might also wish to enquire why out of all the Berne Convention signatories, participant to this conference, Birdlife Malta, that depicts Malta as the world’s black spot, saw it fit not to present its report. Obviously, this would have been dwarfed by the illegalities in other countries and dispelled the myth.

The newspaper fails to acknowledge the difference between the problem in Malta and that in other countries. This being that none are vilified by their respective bird protectionists for their own egoistic ends and neither are newspaper editors so gullible and obliging.

For all intents and purposes, Times of Malta is far more irresponsible than the “bad among hunters” since it is fully aware that the weapon at its disposal is far more lethal than the few shots fired illegally.