Call it authoritarianism, autocracy, dictatorship or just a rule of law in disguise; all members of the same family consistently gaining ground globally from the Americas to Europe to Asia. Orban, Erdogan, Maduro, Zuma, Duterte, Trump to mention a few. And yet Sheri Berman, a political science professor at Barnard College, opines that even in [...]
It’s a funny old world where Magistrates-in-waiting feel the need to do some PR. But if you’ve been showered in consultancy contracts since the sun rose over Malta (to use a local idiom) in March 2013 you need to remind the world you exist beyond Chris Cardona’s grace and favour and your father-in-law Paul Lia’s [...]
Konrad Mizzi is asking the Constitutional Court to protect him from the government he works for. In a complaint to the Court he says the State should not be allowing anyone to ask for an inquiry into the Panama Papers. He says the procedure used by Simon Busuttil and separately by Repubblika allows people to [...]
Press Release by #occupyjustice: Castille Square was a sea of activists holding up portraits of Daphne Caruana Galizia, to mark eighteen months since the journalist’s brutal assassination, an action reminiscent of the scene from the movie Being John Malkovich. The activists, gathered behind the slogan #occupyjustice, converged in front of the office of the Prime [...]
The government is always warning us not to reach premature judgement. Was the drive-by shooting in Birżebbuġa last week a racially motivated crime? It is ‘irresponsible’ to answer that, we’re told, before such a thing is definitively ascertained by investigators. It’s only the last in a line of truth-dodging defense mechanisms put up by the [...]
Read this follow-up feature about Russian millionaires buying Maltese passports. The story by Anna Nemtsova includes comments by Ilya Shumanov, the deputy head of Transparency International’s bureau in Moscow that showed The Daily Beast a list of 582 Russians who have bought E.U. passports in Malta just since the beginning of 2018. The group has [...]
If the Prime Minister was making any attempt at logic yesterday, his record of contradictions, inconsistencies, gyrations and logical contortions came in his way. It is supremely ironic that he was complaining he could no longer handle other people’s hypocrisies when his are so manifest. He complained about the bible-bashing, procession-going Catholics who are celebrating [...]
Last October I wrote a piece ‘Journalism most foul, he said’ on this blog. I wrote it in response to an article published in the Sunday Times of Malta the day before, authored by the newspaper’s former editor, Steve Mallia. As I had written in my article, I never wanted to use my blog to [...]
In case you missed it. https://youtu.be/Owg1iBs0Tb4
Rightly or wrongly, the PN has placed itself in direct confrontation with the independent media. Its last remaining pen-holding sympathisers either work for it or work for the Labour Party with whom it shares many interests. When Saviour Balzan is your attorney, your days are numbered. When the Times of Malta rolls out an editorial [...]
Press Release by Repubblika: Repubblika filed a judicial protest in Court demanding the government freezes appointments to, and promotions in, the judiciary until measures to ensure judicial independence are properly introduced. Judicial independence is not just a right for judges. It is a human right of all of us, protected by the European Convention, that [...]
From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Mr Souleymane has been killed in the street. We are supposed to reserve judgement on the motivation of the killing until the police determine who did it and why. Of course we know the police are almost certainly not doing any such thing. Whether because they do [...]
The European Parliament has passed a whole series of resolutions on Malta and, like that mirror up to nature, they show us up for what we truly are. Recoiling in horror should be the instinctive reaction to this image of ourselves in the cold clear light of day. We are officially a tax haven. Alongside [...]
19:01 Adds Frank Psaila's comments. A meeting with Yorgen Fenech of the Tumas Group cost Herman Schiavone his seat in the PN Parliamentary Group. It did not cost Kristy Debono anything more than the effort to write a not entirely heartfelt apology. Here's a screen-shot taken for Net TV's Iswed fuq l-Abjad presented by PN [...]
This was sent in by a reader: Dear Manuel, This is a letter from an avid reader of your blog who would like to remain anonymous . First of all, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation for all your efforts in advocating good governance. That Labour will retain four seats is a [...]
I decided to write these few words after reading Vicki Ann Cremona’s article 'Error of Judgment' in yesterday’s Times of Malta. I also took note of the Facebook comment of Ms Mandy Carly, Kristie Debono’s sister, who seems to find it hard to accept the idea of freedom of speech. I don’t think I [...]
Reżistenza statement this morning: The Maltese institutions are on their knees, exhausted from a cocktail of incompetence & collusion. Nobody has remained accountable for their actions. After all, once we are in l-aqwa żmien, what shortfalls can anyone find? In 2016, our country lived a pivotal moment. It could have been the beginning of a [...]
