A Times of Malta probe into the number of illegal livestock farms was met with an unusual request by the Parliamentary Secretary for Animal Rights Roderick Galdes, who urged the newspaper to write positive stories on the sector instead.

For more than a month, Times of Malta has been asking what proportion of livestock farms are not yet compliant with EU laws and why they have not yet been shut down.

The reply received states: “Mr Galdes said that it seems that you had agreed to limit such stories and focus on the positive side of the sector.”

Times of Malta made no such agreement, but instead stressed its independence and insisted on receiving the replies. To date, no such responses have been forthcoming.

The newspaper was also guided to a source of positive stories along the lines requested by Mr Galdes: “I will be getting you Jeanette Borg’s contact so that she can guide you to (sic) some stories.” Times of Malta made it clear no such help was required from Ms Borg, even though she describes herself as “a local pioneer in the eco-tourism sector”.

Ms Borg owns an eco-tourism company, and had said in an interview last year that “it’s not the hunting as such that damages eco-tourism” but the “hype” that surrounds it. The newspaper continued to ask the secretariat to provide information on the number of illegal livestock farms.

The request is part of an ongoing probe into the dumping of slurry (liquid manure from livestock farms) on agricultural fields.

Meanwhile, a farm close to Buskett was identified last week releasing slurry directly onto the street.

From an outlet at the farm, the slurry is let out and flows down into a canal along the road on to another outlet that allows it to flow into a nearby valley. When it rains, the canal cannot cope with the amount of waste and it overflows onto the road. Witnesses told Times of Malta this has been going on for more than two decades.