Updated 6.40pm with Labour reaction
Robert Abela claims that a shadowy “establishment” is out to destroy independent media while leading a country that ranks terribly on media freedom, the Nationalist Party noted with irony on Friday.
“Robert Abela has conjured up a ghoul that he’s trying to distract people with,” the PN said. “And when the independent media ask him about this ‘establishment’, he can only manage ambiguous statements that nobody can understand.
“He says that this ‘establishment’ is trying to destroy the media. It’s ironic that Robert Abela is saying this when our country ranks among Europe’s worst when it comes to media freedom,” the PN said in a statement.
It was referring to the outcome of the 2024 Press Freedom Index, which saw Malta rank second-from-bottom across the EU, despite rising 11 places on the index.
Referring to the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, the PN said that “a government that was found guilty of assassinating a journalist can never be taken seriously when it tries to speak about press freedom”.
An inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s 2017 murder concluded that the state had to bear responsibility for that crime, as it allowed a culture of impunity to fester.
Abela has in recent days cranked up rhetoric about an “establishment” that he claims is intent on harming the Labour Party and Labour interests.
But while he has singled out Magistrate Gabriella Vella for criticism, he has stopped short of identifying others he believes are part of this “establishment”.
Instead, he has sought to fire up Labour supporters by saying they can hit back at the judiciary by voting on June 8. Labour insiders have confided that the party is concerned that lacklustre turnout among its core supporters will lead to the party losing its fourth MEP seat.
When asked again on Friday by a Malta Today journalist who forms part of the "establishment", Abela did not name names but said it is out to "destroy Malta Today."
Magistrate Vella completed an inquiry into the Vitals hospital privatisation deal last week. That probe, which remains secret, is expected to lead to criminal charges against many current and former Labour politicians, including Abela’s predecessor Joseph Muscat.
Muscat has said that he is being targeted as part of a “political vendetta” while Abela has said the inquiry was intentionally timed to damage Labour’s electoral prospects.
In a reaction, the Labour Party said that PN leader Bernard Grech cannot stand up to the "establishment" because it installed him in his post.
"He knows that he will remain there only for as long as he bows to the will of a group of people that took over a party and want to take over a country," the party said.