It is becoming increasingly clear that respect for a person’s opinion is rapidly diminishing.

Expressing oneself freely implies being allowed to articulate thoughts and also being able to do this without threats or any form of intimidation. Apparently, this depends on whether one praises or criticises one of our main political parties as vividly shown by recent events involving a few eminent defections. Surprisingly, even I came in the line of fire of a covert regular columnist in another English newspaper because what I wrote did not fit into his or her political agenda. After all, I was only trying to be objective in my arguments. Of greater concern are the threats that Jo Said claims to have received following his courageous appearance on Realtà aired on Smash TV.

Why does it have to be this way? Is this reminiscent of basic European values? Or are we only Europeans by virtue of geograph-ical position and union membership? Probably some illustrious contributor here or there will care to lecture us on the issue too.

Edward Mifsud

Rabat