Malta does have laws criminalising the corruption of officials. And though we have the right laws on paper, the real issue is failure of the institutions to act on them. So signing a European convention does not solve the problem at hand. But there's something odd for a government to have come to power in [...]
Jean Claude Micallef is not famous for his consistency. He flipflopped between Labour and the PN according to where he thought his chances for career progression were better served. The PN first received him as parties habitually welcome sheep lost by the other side. But as his oily sleaze ran up the creeped-out collective spines [...]
Minutes after his mother was killed in a brutal explosion and while her remains still burnt all around him, Matthew Caruana Galizia was assaulted and punched in the face by a man who stopped near the burning remains to take photos. Matthew Caruana Galizia told me how a man driving a silver SUV parked next [...]
As far as I can figure out TVM has not covered the Paradise Papers leaks. It’s not that they did not analyse the Azerbaijani connections to Malta and Pilatus Bank. It’s not that they avoided joining dots bouncing furiously at each other. They didn’t even report the fact that Pulitzer-Prize winning ICIJ team have leaked [...]
This is to link to the feature in Italian.
If you speak French, listen to this.
You can feel the desolation in the title of The Times's leading piece today. It speaks about the vain hope that EU membership might have kept in check a government that neglects the basic obligations of democratic administration and respect for the rule of law. But the EU is found wanting. In the same way [...]
Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore reports that Catanese Guardia di Finanza believes a Maltese foreign office official has falsified certificates of origin to allow diesel from Libya to be illegally inserted in the Italian and European fuel market. The newspaper owned by the Italian federation of employers reports that "a network of friendships in [...]
Please join me in welcoming The Shift News to the media scene in Malta. It's a new day for independent journalism in Malta, free of the shackles of partisan spin and the pressures of corporatism. It looks like the effort Malta needs most right now given the enormous gap left by Daphne Caruana Galizia's untimely [...]
The following reply was sent in by Dr Juliana Scerri Ferrante in response to an earlier post of mine. I am obviously happy to carry responses by people mentioned in my post particularly on matters of fact. In the interest of fairness responses are not open to comments unless again on points of fact. From [...]
Hundreds of people gathered yesterday evening in front of the Police Headquarters called there by the civil society network to demand justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia, her family and the country. After the two large demonstrations in Valletta and Sliema the previous Sundays this was a more focused affair. Malta has very little tradition of [...]
The following report published today by Nicola Tani in a specialist industry magazine gives an idea of how the worldwide gaming industry, a major contributor to the Maltese economy, is changing its perception of Malta. Concerns about the use of Malta as a laundromat for Italian organised crime are escalating and the defense of the [...]
A month ago tomorrow Malta established diplomatic relations with the Cook Islands. If you were not too familiar with them before now, you'll be hearing more about these sparse 15 islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a population the size of Birżebbuġa. The Paradise Papers published yesterday by the ICIJ show the [...]
The courtesy, professionalism and admirable seriousness of the police men and women providing safety and security at yesterday’s civil society sit-in protest in front of headquarters was something to behold. The policemen there gave protesters protection and ensured the crowd had the space to make its voice heard. This is even more significant when one [...]
For a government that prides itself of a trail-blazing law to protect whistle blowers, its behaviour with people who do blow whistles is particularly galling. The woman who spoke up about misdeeds in Pilatus Bank was hounded out of the country. The cooperation of the Attorney General Peter Grech to ensure she had the passport [...]
Split admiration for the episcopal conference seems to be aligning effectively along partisan lines. The Archbishop of Malta's Charles Scicluna's authoritative moral guidance during the crisis of the weeks since the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia is being loudly criticised by Labour trolls, led by Labour grandees who have opened fire on one of their [...]
An earlier guest post criticised Gozo Bishop Mario Grech for being oddly tepid after the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. A curia insider wrote the below guest blog post in reaction. It seems there's more internal politics that needs to be understood if a proper analysis of Bishop Grech's odd behaviour is to be arrived [...]
The International Consortium of Independent Journalists, Pulitzer awardees after their Panama leaks two years ago, have tonight released over 13 million documents revealing further evidence of senior political figures allegedly laundering illicit earnings through banana jurisdictions, including Malta. The spotlight on Malta as a cover for corrupt politicians and evil dictators now shines even brighter. [...]
Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has been sacked from his responsibilities in the Saudi Arabia government and arrested for corruption. The Saudi King sacked senior government officials for corruption including Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal though no official explanation has been given on the what specifically he is accused of. In December 2014 Joseph Muscat mysteriously and for [...]
By an anonymous author known to me: Leaders. They are the glimmer of light that a community seeks in time of pitch black darkness. Indeed in the wake of a terrible tragedy for a nation even more terrible for a family that lost a wife, a mother, a sister, a friend leaders become a beacon [...]