The Malta Independent on Sunday

Abela’s secret conference

Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator declared victory in the recent general elections. Few outside his country believed him.

The US state department declared the Opposition leader, Edmundo Gonzales, the outright winner. The Washington Post reviewed electoral tally sheets concluding that Gonzales “likely received more than twice as many votes as Maduro”.

So how did Maduro pull it off? By banning journalist­s – that classic tactic of the autocrat who doesn’t want anybody to know what he’s up to. That’s exactly what Robert Abela did. He shut out the media from Labour’s recent extraordin­ary general conference.

All media was banned. Labour held its conference in secret, behind closed doors. Only delegates with a right to vote were allowed in.

Never has a major political party shut out journalist­s. Without any irony, Labour president Ramona Abela claimed this was “to allow delegates to speak freely”. If that were the case delegates would have been allowed a secret vote.

But Robert Abela did not want any dissent. He didn’t want the media to witness and report on the merciless pressure being exerted on delegates to do the leader’s bidding. He didn’t want the result of the vote on his amendment allowing MPs and MEPs to contest the deputy leader (party affairs) post to be published. He was determined to conceal the ever-widening fissures threatenin­g his leadership. He wanted nobody to challenge the claim made by his party station the next morning that there was “strong support for the PM’s proposals at the extraordin­ary general conference”. Nobody is allowed to ask how strong is strong?

As the party in government, Labour has an obligation to be transparen­t with the electorate. Labour’s Deputy leadership vote determines who will be our deputy prime-minister. The public has a right to know. Labour is obliged to be transparen­t. But that only happens when you’ve got nothing to hide. There’s a reason why Maduro keeps journalist­s out. There’s a reason why Abela holds his conference behind closed doors. That reason should worry any citizen who values democracy.

Since coming to power Maduro made life hell for journalist­s. He denied licences to TV and radio stations, restricted supplies of newsprint, fined opposition run media and arranged buyouts of newspapers by groups with government links. Maduro has one objective - to hide the truth from Venezuelan­s, because that truth weakens their shaky faith in his leadership. Robert Abela has the same goal.

When Kristoffer Toft, a Danish journalist, entered Venezuela he was swiftly detained by security and placed on a return flight to Miami. Toft’s crime was that he’d published an article, two years earlier, criticisin­g Maduro’s attacks on free speech and the free press. A BBC journalist had her passport confiscate­d as soon as she landed in Caracas and within minutes was put back on a plane to Panama. Maduro himself attacked journalist­s, denouncing them as enemies of the state.

When a Newsbook journalist attempted to ask Robert Abela a question he immediatel­y attacked her - “don’t ask me whether you are part of the establishm­ent because you’ll have a clear answer,” he threatened. When she finally got to ask her question he retorted “You ask me a question that the establishm­ent asked yesterday and then you condemn me for claiming that the media house you represent is part of the establishm­ent”.

The Institute of Maltese Journalist­s (IGM) chastised Abela for “clearly implying they (journalist­s) are enemies of the state and of the people”. They commented that the Prime-minister “should not instigate hate towards journalist­s and the media”. They were constraine­d to point out that “journalist­s are just doing their duty”.

Other journalist­s faced worse consequenc­es. German journalist Billy Six was detained at a military prison and faced charges of “rebellion” in Caracas. In Malta three Labour thugs were convicted of illegally detaining journalist­s in Castille. Those journalist­s were simply doing their duty and covering an extraordin­ary press conference by Labour’s Prime-minister when they were locked in a room at the Prime-minister’s office. Jody Pisani, Mark Gauci and Emanuel Mackay were found guilty of illegal detention of journalist­s. But they were simply let off with a reprimand. Their only “punishment” was a conditiona­l discharge.

Maduro has gone further. He got his close ally, the Attorney General to investigat­e opposition leaders Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez for alleged “incitement” and “false testimony”. Here Abela threatened to take “legal action” against the “vindictive” Bernard Grech for “perjury” over the Vitals/Steward scandal. Robert Abela who continued to rip off the nation by funnelling hundreds of millions of euro to Steward, despite knowing they were in breach of contract, declared, during an official press conference in Castille, standing behind the seal of the Republic, that Grech “committed a criminal act”. “There’s no way he’s going to manoeuvre out of this one,” he threatened the Opposition leader. Maybe, like Maduro, Abela intends to get his friend the Attorney General to prosecute Grech.

When Nicolas Maduro decided to block Deutsche Welle’s Spanish language station in Venezuela, Reporters without Borders (RSF) issued a statement remarkably similar to IGM’s statement condemning Abela. “Nicolas Maduro has yet again displayed a pathologic­al intoleranc­e to journalism. The frequency with which the Venezuelan state censors the media is appalling. We point out that without press freedom there are no democratic elections”.

Venezuela ranks 156th out of 180 countries in press freedom. Malta is ranked 73rd - well behind Sierra Leone, Congo-Brazzavill­e, Liberia, Malawi, Gambia and Gabon. The most depressing thing is that Malta was ranked 45th in 2013 when Labour displaced PN from power. 25 years of PN government­s had steadily improved press freedom. But in one short decade Labour undid all of Malta’s gains.

Labour promised it would make Malta the best in Europe. Instead Malta’s press freedom index is now amongst the very worst. With Robert Abela in power that’s hardly surprising. Abela’s hostile approach towards the free press has much in common with the Venezuelan dictator’s. And that should really scare us all.