This screenshot of Glenn Bedingfield losing more than his cool in Parliament a couple of days ago is the stuff of nightmares. And Jurgen Balzan reacts in the appropriate manner. He calmly remarks "if Egrant does not belong to anyone within the Labour regime, there is no need for Glenn Bedingfield to lose his [...]
Partit Demokratiku's statement: PD in full support of Sunday’s demonstration: Manifestazzjoni Ġustizzja u Verità Partit Demokratiku is the only party represented in parliament which has unfailingly supported civil society in its incessant demands for an end to corruption and impunity, for good governance and truth and justice. Why? Because Partit Demokratiku is a democratic and [...]
On Tuesday, the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom and the German journalist union Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (DJV) are hosting a vigil outside the Maltese Embassy in Berlin to commemorate Daphne Caruana Galizia, and to make it clear that also a year later, the pressure on the Maltese government to investigate this murder thoroughly will [...]
Sent in by someone known to me: It is obvious why government members went all out to drown down Simon Busuttil’s telling comments on the Egrant inquiry at Parliament’s sitting on 10 October. He was spot on in saying that the Magistrate’s conclusions in his report did not categorically rule out that Egrant’s owner could [...]
This is my translation of an article carried yesterday by La Repubblica. If you can, read the original here. “State of Denial”: an English expression that accurately describes the effect of the new revelations published Tuesday by La Repubblica and the Daphne Project coordinated by Forbidden Stories, throwing light once more on the undiscovered darkness [...]
There are bigger fish to fry, but I can’t let this fish slip. I wasn’t in the courtroom when Magistrate Joe Mifsud is reported to have appointed an exorcist in some mumbo-jumbo case he was presiding. The report in Times of Malta refers to this exorcism business in its heading but says very little about [...]
Owen Bonnici needs to get on the phone double quick with the head street sweeper of Ruse in Bulgaria. We can't have flowers and candles and a picture of a journalist left on a public memorial now, can we? It would be a travesty. The photo was on today's The Malta Independent.
Civil society activists rightly point out that they are distinct from politicians even though they may find themselves agreeing with some of them. The vocation of the two is different. Civil society is not burdened by the needs of strategy, partisan tactics, collegial solidarity and the plague of consistency. They mean what they say when [...]
I'm taking a bit of a risk here as obviously this show is the property of the BBC and I'm uploading an extract here without their express permission. If this post vanishes at some point you know why. This extract is the Malta segment which was the very first segment of the very first episode [...]
I’ve thought about what I’m about to say a lot over the last year and I’ve stopped myself saying it aloud. But I saw the prime minister on TV yesterday in Parliament and I heard from people who were there what the scene in the chamber after the cameras were switched off was like. And [...]
Sarah Puntan Galea, another footsoldier in Joseph Muscat's regiment of truth bashers, wanted to remind the BBC's Simon Reeve how journalism should be done. She thinks the world is like Malta where Labour gets to tell everyone what to think, no matter how absurd. The fact that the BBC interviewed me does not give anyone [...]
After that fascist attack on basic freedoms perpetrated in full view of the country by a prime minister who threatened an Opposition MP with effective exile from the country, Simon Busuttil is tonight standing in Parliament to reply. Until now Simon Busuttil said he would wait for the Egrant inquiry to be published before reacting [...]
PEN International is hosting a vigil for Daphne Caruana Galizia on Tuesday 16 October at 7 pm in the courtyard of St James' Church in Picadilly, London. St James' Church is right opposite Malta's High Commission to the UK. The event is described by the organisers as "a vigil to pay tribute to the courage of [...]
The focus right now is on Chris Cardona and the reasons he lied about not knowing Alfred Degiorgio, alleged assassin number 1 awaiting trial for killing Daphne Caruana Galizia. When faced by witnesses he met him close to the bombing at Ferdinand’s bar in Siġġiewi he denied having met him and insisted he only knew [...]
Pierre Portelli was not having a great day today. It’s not something I brought about. Nickie Vella De Fremeaux hit out at Pierre Portelli without naming him at first over an issue which emerges from a conflict of interest he is in, combining his work at the PN with his private interests. In a message [...]
By Charmaine Spiteri: Iced Buns It has been reported in the media that former Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri, who failed to get elected in the last election earns about €160,000 a year through public contracts awarded to her by direct orders. In the contract with Identity Malta, she is required to go through 50 files [...]
What should be obvious is the callous horror that Malta’s Parliament has made no announcement it will be marking the death of a journalist in the democracy it is supposed to be a representative of. As in Italy last week, the Bundestag is calling a meeting for 18th October for German MPs titled “Press freedom [...]
Statement by #occupyjustice outside the Valletta Police Station today. Six months ago, on 19th April, #occupyjustice activists visited the Valletta Police Station to pass to the police information they appeared not to have seen, though it was published on the world’s media: that Minister Chris Cardona knew alleged assassin Alfred Degiorgio and met him before Degiorgio [...]
Updated: Adds statement by Pierre Portelli On the morning after Chris Cardona was accused by a leading Italian daily of lying about how well he knew an assassin accused of killing a journalist, the party apparatchiks at the PN are busy managing a storm over who has the rights over a TV fiction. This is [...]
