Both Daphne Caruana Galizia and Michael Carabott (TMID, 1 February) highlight the damage being done to Malta’s reputation by Malta’s hunters and the inability or unwillingness of the islands’ politicians to enforce the EU laws, which they so enthusiastically embraced.

Michael Carabott particularly draws attention to the call by an influential columnist on the UK Independent newspaper for British tourists to boycott Malta. In fact, the mud is even deeper than he suggests.

On Tuesday, 30 January, both the London Times and the Daily Telegraph carried very prominent articles deploring Maltese behaviour. The Times led with the headline “First cuckoo of spring may have been shot over Malta” while the Telegraph used the no-less-damaging “Migrating birds being shot illegally by Maltese hunters”.

In the space of two days, therefore, three of the leading “serious” newspapers in the UK (and that means three of the most widely read and most powerful editorial voices of Northern Europe) have pilloried this country and branded it a second world State.

Brand Malta? I think not!

Wylie Cunningham

Balzan