Eighty-nine-year-old Whitey Bulger was attacked by two Mafia mobsters. Bulger was an FBI informant and was revealing what he’d seen in the crime syndicate. His attackers tried to gouge out his eyes before beating him to death.

Our Labour government is doing the same. It’s trying to gouge out the eyes of the nation. It’s attempting to cut off its ears. It’s trying to finish off those who expose its crimes. Malta’s eyes and ears are the independent investigative journalists working assiduously to uncover Labour’s darkest secrets.

They keep us informed about what those entrusted with our finances, our health and our future are really up to. They’re the ones putting themselves at risk to let us know we’re being cheated. They raise the alarm when our taxes are siphoned off into the pockets of secret ultimate beneficial owners. They alert us when public funds are fraudulently diverted into the pockets of politicians and their friends.

Without those eyes and ears we’d never have known about the long list of shocking scandals Labour engineered – Electrogas, Vitals, St Vincent de Paul, Mozura, Marsa junction, the GWU jobless scheme, the American University of Malta, the LNG tanker.

Without them we’d never have known about Keith Schembri’s and Konrad Mizzi’s concealed financial structures in the most secretive jurisdictions. We’d never have found out about 17 Black and its owner, Yorgen Fenech. Or Egrant.

Without those eyes and ears, Mizzi would be our prime minister today. And Chris Cardona deputy prime minister. Joseph Muscat would have replaced Donald Tusk as European Council president. And tens of thousands more would have reached his BOV account.

Hundreds of millions more would have been stolen from the people.

Labour knows it was journalists who thwarted their rotten road map. Muscat knows his plans for European glory were demolished by their diligent perseverance.

Labour can see its support shrink as journalists expose more of the truth. Robert Abela knows his iron grip on power is steadily being loosened with every revelation of yet more scandals – the disability benefits scam, the driving licence racket.

Labour knows those journalists are our eyes and ears, witnessing the crimes Labour commits against the people.

And Labour is retaliating, viciously. It’s intent on gouging out our eyes, cutting off our ears. Malta has the highest number of SLAPPs per capita throughout the EU. Those SLAPPs are the weapons Labour uses to throttle journalists. Last year saw 44 SLAPPs instituted, 40 of which filed by government ministries and entities against The Shift News. Eighty different lawyers paid by taxpayers were ordered by our Labour government to hound that small newsroom.

Labour is using our money to stop journalists letting us know about its devious abuses. We cannot let that happen. A recent conference organised by the Shift with the support of the Justice for Journalists Foundation attempted to derail Labour’s attempts to destroy independent journalism.

Several international organisations participated – the International Press Institute, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, OCCRP, the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, Greenpeace. Times of Malta editor-in-chief Herman Grech chaired one of the sessions. “What can we do to win the PR game to explain to our readers that it is in their interest that we win this SLAPP case,” he asked. “From where I’m sitting, you’re shouting into thin air and nobody’s listening.”

That important conference received no coverage. None of the major newsrooms reported on it. That PR battle cannot be won with silence. Our journalists seem to have already surrendered in the face of Labour’s massive firepower. Why are all those international press freedom organisations left to fight our battle? Wasn’t the barbaric butchering of Daphne Caruana Galizia warning enough?

Malta’s eyes and ears are the independent investigative journalists working assiduously to uncover Labour’s darkest secrets- Kevin Cassar

Labour’s ruthless scorched earth poli­cy can only be combated through concerted collaborative efforts by all journalists, supported by a vociferous public. The apathetic indifference to that conference intended to bolster journalists’ defences only empowers Labour to do its damnedest to stifle what is left of Malta’s independent journalism.

We know what to expect from Labour. When the opposition put forward anti-SLAPP amendments in parliament, Labour voted against. Labour trotted out the notorious former attorney general, Peter Grech, who advised that “no further protection for journalists was needed”. That was barely six months after Caruana Galizia’s bloody assassination. Owen Bonnici’s excuse was that those amendments would be in breach of EU law.

Faced with increasing international pressure, Labour set up a Committee of Experts on Media. After the committee’s first report was presented, Labour hurriedly tabled bills in parliament without consultation and ignoring many of the committee’s recommendations. Two of the committee’s members threatened to resign unless the bills were withdrawn to allow for wider consultation.

The committee submitted a second report to the prime minister in July. That report was kept under wraps. By the end of September, the Institute of Maltese Journalists threatened the government it would publish the report itself unless immediately tabled in parliament. That report was finally made public. Its 16 pages, however, fall far short of ensuring journalists are adequately protected from abusive proceedings – and that’s before Labour has watered it down.

Nobody is expecting the principal perpetrator of SLAPPs, Abela, to institute adequate anti-SLAPP measures. International press freedom organisations condemned the lack of transparency and public consultation by both the Labour government and the committee of experts at every stage of the process relating to the implementation of the recommendations of the public inquiry.

Labour is not remotely interested in protecting journalists. It will continue to drag its feet and block all attempts to protect journalists. It intends to tighten its stranglehold on information. It will continue to harass and intimidate those whose job it is to expose the truth.

It will continue to wear them down, demoralise them, bankrupt them, break them. Labour knows what independent journalism means – the people will know the truth. That spells Labour’s downfall. And Labour won’t let it happen. It will gouge out the nation’s eyes before it does.

Kevin Cassar is a professor of surgery.