Reacting to the Police Commissioner's statement that no infringements were found on the FKNK website forum, BirdLife Malta today revealed more messages taken from the FKNK website in addition to the report it had filed a year ago.

BirdLife last year appealed to the police to carry out investigations regarding the messages targeting BirdLife on the FKNK website forum. The report quoted various messages which were threatening in tone and content. A member of the forum in a post dated January 24, 2007 on a thread entitled "yes we'll smash things" wrote: "yes we are ready to use fists of iron. I am willing to be arrested! damn it, only God must hold me back because I will make a massacre of people damn these? what do they think? That we're not going to take the law into our own hands?! This cannot be. We have always done this and that's what we're going to continue doing: bombs , beatings , bottles flying , vandalism?"

"How can the Police Commissioner claim that no infringements were found?! If these messages posted on the hunters' website forum are not against the criminal code, the electronic communication act and the press act, then what is?" Tolga Temuge, BirdLife Malta Executive Director asked.

Since BirdLife's initial report to the Police, things have not changed. Recent messages taken from the same website and revealed to the media by BirdLife today include statements such as: "what can these dozen police can do against 15,000 hunter", "?if the police come for us they will not to anything to us cause they have a family too", "If they do not open spring [we] protest and have to break everything out there as otherwise nothing will happen.", "BirdLife's turn will arrive - let them not hope they will get away with it, for the damage they caused us", "?they have not realized yet how much they will pay for it. Don't they know that Malta is a small country", "?if they think they will have the spring [hunting ban] on a silver platter, they are mistaken because as soon as spring [shooting] ends, they will finish too.", "We break everything like they do in Europe. Breakage and damage, NO MERCY FOR THESE LIBA" and "I love this hobby so much that I am ready to kill for it.".

BirdLife stated that it is not asking for the closure of the website in question, but rather is asking police to carry out thorough investigations so as to take legal action against the people posting these messages, as well as FKNK as the organisation responsible for its website. FKNK should not allow these kind of messages that incite violence and hatred to be posted on the forum. It is evident from FKNK's own statements that these messages are not vetted and most of these were in fact still online until today, BirdLife said.

BirdLife also added that over the last year FKNK's administration has been directly targeting BirdLife and the organisation's members, by fanning the embers through xenophobic and hateful media statements. In addition, FKNK apparently continues to provoke its members by posting xenophobic messages on its website forum.

On September 6th, 2007 the moderator of the forum posted the following message, signed as FKNK: "What we liked most from what Dr. Josie Muscat [Leader of AN] said is about immigrants, where he said that he was not just referring only to those who come by sea, but also those who come by air with a visa and stay here? Here we can't help but remember that BirdLife (Malta) is already being run by foreigners, starting from the Turk?".

This encouragement from FKNK's administration resulted in many messages in reply, including the one posted by a person in November 2007 where s/he referred to BirdLife Malta's Executive Director who is a Turkish citizen: "He knows that if he is not careful he'll end up like Dragut. Without a head, shot towards birdlife with a cannon."

Postings on the FKNK forum were not only limited to BirdLife's director but also targeted Anna Giordano, a renowned Italian ornithologist who currently works for the Italian Ministry of Environment, who joined BirdLife's Raptor Camp last September. Another member on 14 September, 2007 posted: "This is one of those who found her mouth up her ass, she really thinks she's something?until a few find her outside and they beat her to a pulp, this is how she will remain?.more and more if they are two obsessed hunters and she talks to them like that you will see how she ends up."

"We demand to know why the Police Commissioner claims that no infringements were found. Furthermore, the police force should be able to easily identify any one who registers him/herself with a website forum. Even if this person has been given the opportunity to clean his/her hard disk, the information can still be obtained from the internet provider and the hosting webmaster," Temuge concluded.