Cuschieri still bruised over Abela decision to stop One Radio broadcast

Labour Party activist Manuel Cuschieri has once again ‘accused’ party leader and prime minister Robert Abela of having formally instructed him to discontinue his broadcasts on Labour Party radio One, at the behest of two unnamed Castille insiders.

Cuschieri, now broadcasting his ‘Linja Diretta’ show on Smash TV, said in his latest installments that Abela communicated the decision to have his midday broadcast cancelled after years of serving Labour as an unofficial propaganda mouthpiece.

Cuschieri said he was “nearly convinced” that two other Castille aides contributed to the decision.

Abela showdown pushed Cuschieri out of One: ‘Now I have liberty to say what I want’

“I was given various reasons why the broadcast had to be cancelled from One Radio... they said I had bee mistaken in defending the political work of Joseph Muscat, of defending Rosianne Cutajar, of disagreeing with a move to have Lawrence Gonzi installed as President of the Republic, of arguing that any excess payments on energy bills should be refunded by the Labour administration,” Cuschieri said.

Cuschieri, twice a Labour candidate during the 1980s, had served the party since 1989 as an activist entrusted with the collection of donations.

Towards the beginning of summer, Cuschieri’s long-time programme was put on a hiatus for the summer, after having mounted a defence of Joseph Muscat, who had been tapped to become the president of the Premier League consortium of Maltese football clubs.

His defence of the erstwhile PM provoked a reaction from a senior party official, who said the radio show would cease broadcasting for the summer. Cuschieri, umbraged, turned to Facebook live to broadcast his polemics, although much of his radio audience failed to migrate to the social media platform.