From Ms A. Mallia

Reference is made to Lou Bondi’s letter (ToM, 22 February) regarding journalists’ silence following his treatment by the Labour (and pro-Labour) media, the bomb threat on my sister Daphne Caruana Galizia’s home, and the absolutely deplorable treatment of my nephew, a young man and a private citizen who had been provoked for 30 minutes by a cameraman and photographer. Super One’s constant broadcasting of that news clip is nothing more than a form of incitement to hatred – political hatred and class hatred – and is a poorly disguised attack on his mother. We have come to this stage – persecuting the children to get at their parents.

What the Journalists Committee fails to realise, perhaps because some of its members are employed by political parties and that factor comes first in their order of priorities, is that it is not just Lou, my sister and my nephew who are the victims or the ones at risk here, but freedom of speech and democracy as a whole. The fact remains that they are being treated in this unacceptable way because – love them or hate them – they both stick their necks out (“far enough to get slapped”, as one obnoxious journalist put it). Both do their jobs properly, sell well and have considerable audiences/readership. Those facts are undeniable, and perhaps this is the real cause of the lack of support from their colleagues.

The green-eyed monster is raising its ugly head.

Amanda Mallia

KAPPARA