Watch: PBS Wants To Silence Us, Robert Aquilina Warns After Police ‘Caution’ Him Over Foyer Press Conference
Repubblika president Robert Aquilina has been “cautioned” by police over a scathing press conference he held inside PBS’ foyer… an act which triggered an official police complaint against him by the public broadcaster.
This afternoon, Repubblika went live from outside the Ħamrun Police Station Headquarters, where Aquilina gave an update on the evolving situation.
Saying he had been “cautioned” by the police but not given a copy of the complaint filed by PBS, Aquilina went on to say he was not told whether he will be charged in court, and what charges he’d face if so.
“It now wants to silence us,” Aquilina warned in the live broadcast, saying PBS was “using the police against us simply for exercising our rights”.
As a reaction to this afternoon’s turn of events, PN spokesperson for PBS Graham Bencini issued a strongly-worded statement, saying the Nationalist Party considered “this act of bullying is completely unacceptable”.
“It looks like the PBS leadership hasn’t learnt anything from the court ruling which condemned it as having discriminated the PN, and has therefore stifled the freedom of expression of half the country,” Bencini wrote.
“With what it did today to Robert Aquilina, the PBS administration is trying to arrest and jail whoever doesn’t agree with how PBS ended up Super One 2 with messages that only help Robert Abela and his government,” the statement continued.
Meanwhile, former NET journalist Norman Vella had a similarly scathing reaction to this afternoon’s events, calling out what he felt was a hypocritical and unbalanced reaction by Malta’s Police Force.
“The police – which has been waiting for over two years to charge at least one person who organised the disability benefit racket – today found the time to arrest Robert Aquilina with the accusation of hosting a press conference in front of the PBS building,” Vella wrote on social media. “And would you believe it, it appears that the police report came from PBS Chairman Mark Sammut, who last Sunday was prominently mentioned in the driving licence racket.”
“Naturally, no one in the Police Force thinks of picking Sammut up and interrogating him on the messages that he used to send to ‘help’ people get their licence,” Vella continued. “Of course not! Instead, in less than four days, they acted on a frivolous and non-sensical report that the same Mark Sammut made on Robert Aquilina.”
“And you have the gall to call this a democracy?”
In his own statement outside the Ħamrun Police Station, Robert Aquilina reiterated the claims made against the PBS chairman over the weekend, saying Sammut’s position was no longer tenable and calling for his resignation.
What do you make of today’s turn of events?
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