In the last couple of days, there have been editorials in the free press that have brought into stark relief the way our position as the fourth guarantor of democracy has been eroded.   A free press, one that espouses the ideals of integrity and fairness, but fearlessly, is as important a bulwark of democracy as the other, more traditional, components of the  concept of the separation of powers.  

The "standard three", the Judiciary, the Executive and Parliament, are enshrined in the Constitution and the dynamic between them seeks to ensure that our government behaves itself.  

The "government" is not the State, we are the State and the institutions are there to serve us, and not the other way round.  Criticising, loudly and forcefully, is our duty and privilege, and it is the free press that mainly does this for us, especially when the people elected to run the government lose sight of their sworn obligations to do that little thing in the interests of all of us, not just a few of them. 

When the free press is threatened, disrespected, lied to and generally treated as an inconvenience to be bamboozled and browbeaten into submission, the threat is to all of us, not just to the media houses that seek to do their duty. 

Those of us of a certain age, as the Sunday Times' editorial today reminded us, remember how the free press was threatened.  Extreme physical violence was resorted to, and the response by the regime at the time was to say, well, we're sorry, but you have to understand that when people are provoked, they react. 

This was unacceptable then, and remains unacceptable now.  

Today, we have echoes of our past resounding down the years, though smoke is not billowing out of the Times' offices.   We are constantly told that "you're undermining Malta's interests abroad", our reporters are treated with contempt unless they're asking "the right questions" and the government's propaganda machine churns out lie after lie and obfuscation after obfuscation.  Threats of libel cases, and libels directed at us, are resorted to on virtually a daily basis. 

We are not perfect: we make mistakes, sometimes stupid ones, and we are human in this, as in everything else.  Sometimes, we even apologise. 

Not so Premier Muscat's government.  

That they are not perfect is a given and forgivable, only people who do nothing do not make mistakes, but when mistakes, and worse, are highlighted, the reaction is to spin, spin and spin some more, hoping to divert our attention or make us think twice about saying things. 

When this is not sufficient unto the purpose, paid "men of trust" are given free rein, often, nay mostly, in breach of the basic rules of decency and the law itself.  

Just to egg the pudding even more, "freedom of expression" is cited to create the false framework that supports this cheap activity, often accompanied by the supercilious and self-serving refrain "you do as bad and worse", itself a lie. 

Premier Muscat and his Ministers have lost sight of the reason why they were elected.  

Ministers who are supposed to uphold principles of independence and freedom, who are there to see that individuals are not targeted and vilified, only do so when their own sacred cows are in the cross-hairs, the rest of us can go hang. 

They know who they are, because they preach, emptily, the principles they fail to uphold.