"... this Tribunal therefore, also in view of the fact that the respondent Birdlife did not learn anything when it was fined 250 euros, orders the respondent to pay a fine of five hundred euros (€500). ", said the Chairperson in her decision of 3 October 2024 in the appeal before the Information and Data Protection Appeals Tribunal, brought by a member of the Council of the Federation for Hunting and Conservation - Malta (FKNK), on his own behalf and on behalf of the FKNK, against BirdLife Malta.
The FKNK lodged this complaint in relation to the publication by BirdLife Malta of a video showing the FKNK Council member without the permission of the same member and the FKNK, and following the first warning issued by the Data Protection Commissioner to BirdLife Malta on 22 December 2011 to ensure that the video was removed from all websites and that it was not published again in the future; another warning and administrative fine of €250 issued by the same Commissioner on 11 November 2013, after BirdLife Malta re-published the same video; and the latest decision of the same Commissioner of 2 May 2023, when he accepted BirdLife Malta's reply that this time the publication of the video on a programme shown on NET TV was a "genuine mistake"!
With all due respect to the decision of the Chairman in this appeal, and without questioning the powers of the same Chairman to impose which penalties and fines in these tribunals, in the humble opinion of the FKNK, it is obvious why BirdLife Malta never learns anything. This society receives hundreds of thousands of Euros of public tax money every year from various government departments. Therefore, fines of €250 and €500 and much more will certainly not affect them and these will probably be paid from their "petty cash".
The hundreds of thousands of euros that BirdLife Malta receives are supposed to be used for bird protection. However, it appears that much of this money is being used to spy on and harass hunters and trappers. Furthermore, the question arises: are other organisations that also spy on and harass hunters and trappers being "subsidised" by BirdLife Malta?
Finally, the FKNK continues to insist on the injustice and disproportionate fines and penalties that exist when it hears cases in court on a daily basis where a retired trapper is fined thousands of Euros and has his trapping licence revoked!
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