The Nationalist Party must decide whether it wants to run with the hare or hunt with the hounds.
It says it wants to fight corruption in the country, safeguard the rule of law and uphold freedom of expression but, then, it unleashes an attack on the independent media.
The Sunday Times of Malta ended up in the PN’s crosshairs after it carried a news item saying the police were looking into a report by the government’s anti-money laundering agency on a London-based prostitution racket in which Opposition leader Adrian Delia had been involved in his capacity as a lawyer. When Dr Delia was approached for a comment he said he was not aware of the investigation.
Then, in a public event on the day the newspaper report appeared, he invited the Police Commissioner to question him about the allegations, insisting he had nothing to hide.
Dr Delia referred to another report carried by The Sunday Times of Malta on the same day, which said the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, and Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi would fall within the scope of a police investigation into 17 Black.
The PN accused The Sunday Times of Malta of “spin”, not with regard the 17 Black probe, of course, butthe one about the London prostitution racket.
An editorial titled ‘Democracy’s candle in the wind’, in which the same newspaper referred to the Delia probe, also did not go down well with the party in Opposition or, at least, certain elements within.
Dr Delia’s party arrogantly expects the weekly newspaper to declare that the information on the London racket probe did not emanate from Castille. The PN also insists the report was merely “a story invented” by Castille, and The Sunday Times of Malta fell for it.
Evidently, for the PN the independent media does a good job and is worth following only when it looks at wrongdoing and allegations of corruption at the Mile End, in Ħamrun, not Our Lady of Sorrows Street, Pietà, where the two large parties have their headquarters.
Expect the Labour Party to continue kicking and throwing good governance, transparency, accountability and ethics to the wind as it feels the heat and more chickens come home to roost.
But the PN has a crucial role to play in the prevailing circumstances and the difficult moments this country has found itself in, mainly because of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s own doing.
However, it cannot do it alone and the independent media is the most likely ally in keeping the government and institutions on their toes.
The PN needs to consolidate the ‘movement’ striving to save democracy not tear it apart.
It should heed what the Archbishop’s delegate, Can David Cilia, said at a remembrance Mass on the occasion of the first anniversary of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder last October:
“It is in the interest of a strong society that respects democracy and the separation of powers that transparency reigns in political issues, that information is allowed to circulate freely, that journalists are truly unshackled, are truly free, not only because they have not been silenced like Daphne Caruana Galizia, but because they are not persecuted or living in fear or retaliation.”
Otherwise, the rule of law and freedom of expression can be laid to rest.
This is a Times of Malta print editorial