The Office of the Prime Minister contacted the Office of the Police Commissioner this morning in order to ensure that the necessary measures relative to Manuel Delia and his family's safety are taken, a spokesperson for the Office of the Prime Minister told The Malta Independent.

Manuel Delia said that he will be leaving Malta as he feared for his safety, having received a number of threats. Writing on his website, Delia said: "I'm not going away to stop writing. I'm going away to be able to focus on my work without having to give too much heed to nuisance phone calls in the middle of the night and the sort of noise that is designed to distract me. Another thing. I'm not alone going through this. Far from it. I'm in the news because of an interview I gave to an Italian website but you know because you read it in the news that there are other journalists, activists, lawyers and state officials that are under a lot of pressure right now and have just as much reason to be concerned. I can do my work remotely for some time which is a relative advantage. They can't. So don't worry about me. Worry about them. Stick together. Right now there are many cornered rats that are realising their hubris was unjustified. But they will go down. This too will pass."

This newsroom sent questions to the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM). A spokesperson for the OPM said that "Prime Minister Robert Abela not only condemns any form of threats but is also actively working and consulting on changes that will give more protection to journalists."

"The Office of the Prime Minister contacted the Office of the Police Commissioner this morning in order to ensure that the necessary measures relative to Mr. Delia and his family's safety are taken, following Mr. Delia's claims."

"The Office of the Prime Minister was informed that the Malta Police was already in contact with Delia and that necessary investigations and actions had already been initiated prior to the most recent assertions," the spokesperson said.