Repubblika has written to Prime Minister Robert Abela over his party’s media house’s coverage of the NGO’s ongoing protest – coverage which they described as “hate-filled” and as inciting and promoting violence against them.
Members of the NGO are currently camping outside the police headquarters in Floriana in protest against the fact that former government minister and now independent MP Konrad Mizzi is yet to be arrested and charged.
The protest, which will culminate on Friday with a national protest outside Castille, was the subject of ONE TV’s Pjazza – led by PN-turncoat turned PL television presenter Karl Stagno Navarra – on Wednesday.
The NGO said that the way in which ONE TV – the Labour Party’s television station – is reporting their protests is not only “cruel and hostile” but is also “hate-filled” and filled with lies.
They said that instead of being portrayed as a protest with democratic reasoning behind it and in conformity with the law and the constitution, the protests was being portrayed as some sort of “establishment”-led plot to steal power.
“Objectively this is a farcical accusation, but ONE TV make it anyway knowing that they have an audience ready to believe it,” the NGO said in its letter.
They also noted that the reporting tried to identify people who could have been supporting the protest and insulted them in such a manner that they tried to discredit them and scare anyone else into supporting the cause.
“This is how tyrants use the media for propaganda, for intimidation and for oppression of those who do not agree with them,” Repubblika said.
The NGO said that the Labour Party, as the country’s governing party, has a duty to protect the right of people to protest as long as that protest is within the limits of the law.
The letter continues that ONE TV’s reporting echoes into social media where a number of comments from people who identified themselves as core members of the Labour Party imagined, encouraged, and in some cases threatened and promised physical violence in retaliation to the protest.
The NGO condemned such behaviour, but observed that these people are talking in such a manner due to their blind loyalty to the Labour Party and because “in their mind they are doing what is asked of them by ONE TV which, because it belongs to the Labour Party, is always right.”
This makes the Prime Minister – who is also Labour Party leader – responsible for their actions, the NGO said.
The letter continues in telling Abela that as Prime Minister and Labour Party leader he has the power and hence the duty to not allow ONE TV to foster hate against those who are protesting and to try and excuse those who want to and are ready to commit acts of violence.
The NGO called on Abela to intervene at ONE TV and said that each time he failed to do so, then it can be concluded that the station acts on his instructions and tactics – something which brings to naught the government’s words in favour of the democracy and the rule of law.
The letter was signed by Repubblika President Robert Aquilina.
The letter aligns with a statement earlier in the day from NGO Occupy Justice, who honed in on Karl Stagno Navarra, saying that his programme on Wednesday had aimed “to incite hatred against protesters and undermine the reasons for their legitimate, peaceful protest.”
They noted that “one of Robert Abela’s ‘star ministers’ was also on set, approving the message portrayed by the TV station and therefore encouraging it.
The “star minister” in question was former MEP and now Energy Minister Miriam Dalli.
Occupy Justice said that it expects Abela to apologise to protesters on behalf of his TV station and for Dalli to condemn the message aired on television on Wednesday in her very presence.
“Both must act immediately to ensure the safety of our protests and protect our activists at all times,” they said.
The past few hours, they said, show how the government had learnt nothing from the findings of the public inquiry into the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia and about the “risk of using government-controlled or Labour Party-owned propaganda vehicles to incite hatred and violence against people who express disagreement with the government.”
PM condemns Labour presenter
In comments to Lovin Malta, Prime Minister Robert Abela later condemned One TV presenter Karl Stagno Navarra’s attack on journalist Tim Diacono. The latter was named by the Labour presenter, who said his presence at the protest showed the “collusion” that exists between the activists, the PN, the Church and the media.
In a second letter to the PM, Repubblika noted that Abela had only referred to Stagno Navarra’s comments on the journalist, but asked whether he approved of the intimidation faced by the activists, on which he had remained silent.