Malta bans Sicilian anti-Mafia Senator for calling on Joseph Muscat to resign

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2017-10-21T23:23:09+02:00Sat, 21st Oct '17, 23:23|

The Maltese government has instructed the Italian government to drop Catanese Senator Mario Michele Giarruso from visiting Malta from Monday as part of a fact-finding mission of the Italian anti-mafia commission. Senator Mario Michele Giarruso called for Joseph Muscat's government's resignation for failing to protect the life of Daphne Caruana Galizia. And the Maltese government, [...]

Losing the trust of Europe

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2017-10-21T21:45:01+02:00Sat, 21st Oct '17, 21:45|

The picture of Malta in European chancelleries and in the corridors of Brussels is now changing. The shock of the bombing of a journalist in an EU member state has raised the attention of even the most inveterate sympathisers of Malta within the EU. Yesterday's Financial Times (the online edition is by subscription so I [...]

GUEST POST: Thoughts since she was taken from us

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2017-10-21T18:18:04+02:00Sat, 21st Oct '17, 18:18|

Thank you for continuing to share your thoughts and emotions at this time. We are finding solace in each other and out of despair perhaps hope will grow. Here are some reflections I received today. I am going through your many hundreds of messages and emails and I am sorry if sometimes it takes long [...]

LAWRENCE GONZI: It is the responsibility of all of us to do something about this sorry state of affairs.

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2017-10-21T15:28:44+02:00Sat, 21st Oct '17, 15:27|

Please read Lawrence Gonzi's article in today's The Times. We are orphans. We are bereft of leaders, deprived of guidance from our political class. Whether because they are impenetrable under their marble cloak of smug self-assurance or because they are shivering at the precipice of a political abyss, our politicians are unwilling or unable to [...]

Justice with change

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2017-10-21T13:48:39+02:00Sat, 21st Oct '17, 13:48|

Joseph Muscat offered to put down a million euro to reward information that leads to the conviction of those who pulled the trigger on the bomb that assassinated Daphne Caruana Galizia. His home affairs Minister said he gave the police a blank cheque to commit any resources they need to investigate her assassination. Matthew Caruana [...]

Unhelpful connections

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2017-10-20T22:52:29+02:00Fri, 20th Oct '17, 22:52|

In 2015 Daphne Caruana Galizia published a story about links between then Birkirkara FC player Fabrizio Miccoli and the Sicilian Mafia. At the time Daphne Caruana Galizia published the story, the President of Birkirkara FC was Adrian Delia, now leader of the Nationalist Party. The story has today been confirmed when Fabrizio Miccoli was sentenced by [...]

San Anton School in solidarity with alumni Matthew, Andrew and Paul Caruana Galizia

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2017-10-20T22:08:40+02:00Fri, 20th Oct '17, 20:40|

The Caruana Galizia boys went to San Anton School and the school has remembered them in their darkest hours and encouraged its students and parents, teachers, alumni and members of the school community to march before the Valletta demonstration this Sunday afternoon. It is encouraging to see educators lead by example and helping school children [...]

GUEST POST: The dystopian effect

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2017-10-20T20:06:42+02:00Fri, 20th Oct '17, 20:06|

This piece is by a former journalist working in Malta: Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination this week brought back memories of my time as a journalist. Time when following the publication of a report, I would get abusive and threatening phone calls… unsigned letters – sometimes incomprehensible and in broken Maltenglish – full of rude and [...]

UPDATED: Daphne’s assassination happened five years to the hour from John Dalli’s dismissal from the EU Commission

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2017-10-20T16:53:51+02:00Fri, 20th Oct '17, 13:02|

In the mid afternoon of 16 October 2012, the European Commission announced John Dalli's "resignation with immediate effect". Around two hours of the fact, after John Dalli by his own account had a few conversation with Joseph Muscat, that story broke in Malta at 17:13 by timesofmalta.com. Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated in the mid [...]

UPDATED: They called her biċċa blogger

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2017-10-20T12:13:07+02:00Fri, 20th Oct '17, 11:53|

Adds link to background article of the original quote by Giancarlo Siani that inspired this cartoon. Here is a cartoon carried by Italian newspaper il manifesto in tribute to Daphne Caruana Galizia on the front page of its edition of the 18th. I missed this in the droves of media coverage of this disaster that [...]

It takes a sportsman to teach dignity to politicians

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2017-10-20T11:24:28+02:00Fri, 20th Oct '17, 09:52|

Anyone who knows me knows I do not know the first thing about football. But I know enough to know that scoring a goal in a UEFA game is a moment of deserved pride and celebration. Andre Schembri showed more dignity and national pride than our self-absorbed politicians when instead of thinking of himself, he [...]

Newly Updated (21.10.17) : The wall of shame

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2017-10-21T21:50:34+02:00Fri, 20th Oct '17, 09:14|

Alexandra Micallef Joseph Mc Keon    Melly Gatt  Franco Debono Mary Cutajar Ilarya Grech     Joanne Micaleff Jason Cachia Jesmond Zammit   Jessica Sammut   Karen Busuttil Mark Spiteri  Jonathan Terry   Lawrence Laiviera Ross Baldacchino Shawn Damato Charlie Magri Massimo Galea    

Judges: it is time for you to act

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2017-10-20T07:59:32+02:00Thu, 19th Oct '17, 23:36|

When the Chief Justice spoke two weeks ago, he warned us not to expect justice if the executive does not do its job of arraigning and vigorously prosecuting criminals for due judgement. For him to come so far, it must have been agonising. No branch of the government can flourish on any lack of confidence [...]

#Ġustizzja: National Demonstration on Sunday

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2017-10-22T21:47:23+02:00Thu, 19th Oct '17, 21:36|

Demonstration, organised by the Civil Society Network, starts at 4pm this Sunday at City Gate. You should really come. And if you intend to, say so in the comments below. Let him know what you think. And let other people who are decent and law-abiding and as disgusted as you are by the rot and [...]

LISTEN: Corruption advisor to UK government says FBI should be investigating corrupt politicians in Malta

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2017-10-19T21:25:52+02:00Thu, 19th Oct '17, 21:25|

BBC Radio 4 spoke this morning to Jonathan Benton who advised the British Prime Minister on corruption and headed the International Corruption Unit of the National Crime Agency about what he thought of Malta. In summary he says that "Malta has a serious problem of money laundering. You cannot have this scale of money laundering [...]

The thin blue line

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2017-10-19T21:07:10+02:00Thu, 19th Oct '17, 21:07|

Watching the sad spectacle of the Police Commissioner give a press conference seventy-two hours after the most heinous crime and the first ever successful political assassination in Maltese history brought on me the hysterical tearful laughter that only tragically depressive situations can cause. It looked like something from an Ed Wood film of a bungling [...]

How can we explain?

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2017-10-19T16:10:33+02:00Thu, 19th Oct '17, 16:10|

I have been speaking to many international journalists visiting Malta over the past 3 days. I have spoken to journalists from The Economist, Reuters, Sky, Liberation and other publications and news media who came here to report on the aftermath of the assassination of one they consider their own. Many of them flew in with [...]

The elimination of journalists is Maltese government policy

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2017-10-19T11:02:30+02:00Thu, 19th Oct '17, 11:02|

A political officer in the office of Malta prime minister wrote this a few weeks before Daphne Caruana Galizia was blown up: "The people have said NO to hate blogging and to those so-called journalists dictated to by the Nationalist agenda of hate. We have seen the weakness of spineless journalists happy to ride the [...]

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