Birdlife conservation manager Nicholas Barbara this morning refused a police request to appear at the ALE headquarters for questioning.

Addressing the media outside the ALE headquarters, he said the frequent police requests for questioning of Birdlife officials boiled down to "intimidation".

Birdlife decided its members could use their time more constructively out in the field.

Mr Barbara had received a phone call from the head of the police’s Administrative Law Enforcement section that polices hunting regulations to visit the headquarters in Floriana this morning.

He was not told what the reason for the request was.

Mr Barbara said Birdlife officials had already spent hours in questioning about a press release they had issued reporting various illegalities.

Yesterday, BBC presenter Chris Packham was questioned for four hours after the hunting federation claimed he violated data protection laws when filming hunters at Miżieb woodland.

Mr Barbara was the third Birdlife official to be summoned for questioning by the police since the start of the spring hunting season that has been dominated by a war of words between conservationists and hunters.

Despite a concerted effort at better policing of the strict conditions attached to the spring hunting season, Birdlife has recorded a number of illegalities that include the shooting of protected birds.

Under the terms of a derogation applied by the government hunters can only shoot on quails and turtle doves. Hunters have an individual seasonal bag limit of four birds and a daily limit of two birds.

Mr Barbara has written to the Police Commissioner explaining his position. His letter can be read in the pdf link below.

In a statement this morning, the Gaia Foundation questioned the procedures being conducted in the name of wildlife conservation.

It expressed serious disappointment that after the promises of stepping up enforcement of wildlife regulations, the authorities seemed to be spending an inordinate amount of time and resources in investigating the conservationists themselves instead.

It referred to an incident earlier in the week when a representative of Birdlife was arrested because he did not turn off his camera in a public area following a request by a police officer to do so.

Gaia questioned the legitimacy of such a request or police order as it was not against the law to take photos or footage of people, including police officers, in a public place.

With respect to the five-hour police interrogation of the BBC wildlife correspondent Chris Packham, Gaia said it failed to understand why a journalist needed to be interrogated for such a long time.

Today’s episode, it said, beggared belief.

“The public in general and the environmental NGO community has a right to know the basis of all this police action involving conservationists and wildlife reporters, especially at a time when it is expected that all hands are on deck ensuring enforcement of the wild bird regulations.

“It is sincerely hoped that no person in enforcement is interpreting the handling by a vet or conservationist of an injured bird in the act of coming to its assistance as constituting an offence in terms of the very legislation set up to protect such birds in the first place.

“This would not only be ludicrous, but it would show an ignorance of a fundamental principle of law that necessity can justify an act that would otherwise be deemed illegal.”

Gaia called on the Commissioner of Police to publicly explain the policy that the department was taking with regard to environmental NGO representatives taking the necessary action to come to the aid of an injured bird.