Rather than write a guest post in my own words, I would much rather quote and bring to the public's attention the words of Giovanni Bonello from the preface to "Misunderstanding the Constitution". "The very last bulwarks that protect democracy, that assert the rule of law, that foster the ethics of the Constitution, when these [...]

When justice is not granted, it must still be demanded. We can’t just give up. Unlike what the Labour Party and its many bedfellows in the Nationalist Party think the pursuit of justice is not a game. It does not have winners or losers. If justice is not served on criminals because they are powerful [...]

Lawyer and legal blogger Jacques Rene Zammit (akkuza.com) commented on yesterday's Panama Papers decision by Judge Giovanni Grixti. He was developing the argument on an excellent analysis by Twitterer BugM which gives more reasons why what has happened is so wrong. The two remind the court that like murder, money laundering is a crime even [...]

Judge Giovanni Grixti’s decision yesterday is truly ground breaking. For altogether the wrong reasons. Consider how he concludes that the Panama Papers and the documents revealed out of Mossack Fonseca’s servers are a “hack” and cannot therefore be considered as grounds for an inquiry. Judges and prosecutors from all over the world, by Judge Giovanni [...]

You may have not had had the time to read the entire speech by Judge Vincent De Gaetano about rule of law in Malta a few weeks ago. He was speaking about the state of rule of law in Malta and if you take one thing from that speech, make it this choice quote: "Malta [...]

This was posted a short while ago by Italian journalist Roberto Saviano. Sums it up well. My translation is beneath. "Malta is the European gateway for untraceable dirty money coming from all over the world. Italy is the country where the most dangerous and powerful mafie that exist hide, spreading out everywhere for more than [...]

This was sent in by Chris in response to my earlier post on Judge Giovanni Grixti's decision today effectively saying that anyone complaining to the court when the police fail to investigate a crime, must first investigate and prove the crime themselves. It's a good thing that my readers' memories are better than mine. "hardly [...]

This statement was released today by 44 local organisations: People are more important We are appalled beyond words that, after 18 days of negotiations, 49 men, women and children remain stuck on a boat within sight of the Maltese shore. In spite of countless calls for solidarity, European Member States have not managed to find a diplomatic solution [...]

The Appeals Court has revoked an order of a lower court for an inquiry into the findings of the Panama Papers. That order was made by Magistrate Ian Farrugia in July 2017 on a request filed by Simon Busuttil complaining to the court that the Police had not investigated the revelations of the Panama Papers [...]

It is reassuring that Adrian Delia is conscious of his own delusions. Repeatedly in his Times Talk interview with Herman Grech he kept premising his more outlandish claims with the prefix ‘in my mind’. It’s a big leap from ‘stat ta’ fatt’. In his mind indeed. In his mind he’s supported in the party. In [...]

Things may be coming to a head at the Nationalist Party. It is hard to say if this could be the time when Adrian Delia finds he has gone too far and that these last set of revelations end up convincing enough people that he is not fit for purpose. In that now famous WhatsApp [...]

I am reproducing Lovin Malta's statement from their website in its entirety here, with their permission. You can read the original on their own page here. I do so because I think this is the appropriate response from independent media confronted by political parties seeking to slip away from accountability by shooting the messenger. There is no reason to think Lovin Malta's motivation is the service of the Labour Party. If I agreed with everything they wrote, there would be [...]

When a traffic accident happens and people are wounded, the emergency services that come on site do not start by taking out the measuring tape to draw the sketch and determine culpability. They start by doing triage, putting the wounded in ambulances, the most seriously hurt first and making sure the area is not of [...]

The following is the text (complete with punctuation and grammar errors as in the original) that PN leader Adrian Delia sent in the wee hours of this morning to party officials on their WhatsApp accounts. I copied it here without comment and without analysis because the text describes better than anything I could say Adrian [...]

In the days and weeks following the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia several people came together to take up the cause for truth and justice. A big part of that was a consequence of the choices the Nationalist Party was making. I remember when my wife decided to call up her friends so they would [...]

Political parties are clearly not used to civil society groups campaigning on democratic rights, anti-corruption and exemplary public life. Not here anyway. The PN’s story, published this morning on Il-Mument after a litmus test on Labour’s One TV last Wednesday and then carried by the PN’s official Facebook page, is another salvo in a series [...]

A few days ago a guest author on this blog reminded PN officials the party’s statute gives them the responsibility to step up whenever the Leader of the party is unequal to his job. That author focused on Mark Anthony Sammut among others, as President of the party’s executive committee. That committee groups together elected [...]

Another former high ranking advisor in the PN ranks writes in. The author is known to me and writes on condition of anonymity. The PN seems to have become professional in its efforts to become irrelevant. The Party that changed Malta, built a modern economy, opened the gates to education, carved a middle-class and propelled us to Europe seems to have not only got paralysed but is quickly descending into oblivion. The writing has been on [...]

Employees of the Nationalist Party and Media Link, the PN’s media company, have told this website on condition of anonymity that on Thursday morning Adrian Delia was heard shouting in apoplectic rage and blaspheming profusely apparently when he learned the nature of the WhatsApp videos making the rounds, some of which appear to have been [...]

I reported for The Sunday Times this morning a visit Archbishop Charles Scicluna paid to the crew of Mission Lifeline, one of the civilian rescue boats trapped in the Maltese harbour while its captain faces criminal action for saving lives at sea. The visit itself is an act of defiance as it happens in spite of court-ordered restrictions on boarding the vessel. But Charles Scicluna was not there to protest yesterday. He was there to support volunteers who have given up chunks of their life to help save people they do not know from slavery, wrongful [...]