Updated 5.40pm with IĠM's statement

Activist and blogger Manuel Delia has warned of a new spoof website designed to undermine him and attack his credibility. 

Delia told Times of Malta that even people with a keen eye mistook the fake website for the real thing and “wondered if I had gone mad”. 

The spoof website carries "confessions" by Delia about his and NGO Repubblika’s supposed role in fake e-mails purporting to have been sent by the blogger. 

These fake emails seek to imply that Delia is mentally ill and on medication, and are being sent out by email addresses that spoof the @manueldelia.com domain used by his website.

In the latest campaign against the blogger, those seeking to discredit Delia have set up a spoof website seeking to mirror his genuine blog. 

The spoof website.

“Imagine what screenshots of this sort of thing going around social media will do to my credibility, such as it is. They can make me say anything and my denials would change nothing. 

“Also fake websites that substantially duplicate an original cause both spoof and original to be automatically removed from search engines.”

Delia said the spoof attacks both his credibility as a journalist and sabotages the medium he uses to communicate.

“I am trying to take this fake spoof site down but that is costing time and money away from my work. And they could start all over again with a new spoof with a slightly different domain name. I’m not sure I can beat this.”

In a tweet, European Centre for Press Freedom lawyer Flutura Kusari called out the “well-orchestrated” attempts to discredit Delia and Times of Malta journalist Matthew Xuereb.

Xuereb has recently been the victim of an attack by a blogger who accused him of running a fake Facebook profile.

Kusari expressed deep concerns for their safety, warning how such attacks can result in physical threats like those experienced by slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

“Will authorities ensure their safety or will they fail again,” she questioned.

The inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s assassination has identified State failings that led to the October 2017 car bombing.

It has called for increased protection for journalists and slammed the culture of impunity created under former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s leadership.  

Police should offer journalists full protection: IĠM

On Friday the Institute of Maltese Journalists condemned the increasing attacks on journalists and bloggers which it said was "a clear attempt to weaken the fourth pillar of the country's democracy". 

Referring to recent attacks on IGM president Matthew Xuereb and journalist Manuel Delia, it said the two, like all other journalists, should be allowed to work in an environment that allowed them to carry out their work without hindrance, fear or intimidation.

"The use of technology to impersonate journalists to influence them in the course of their duties is not only despicable but outright dangerous. 

"IĠM urges any journalist to report any threats or any form of intimidation to the police who should offer journalists full protection," it added.

Opposition leader Bernard Grech said people cannot remain silent in the face of such threats and intimidation.