Here's the second Facebook Live show produced by Repubblika and hosted by Norman Vella. In case you missed it yesterday. There will be another one tonight. Follow the show live on Repubblika's Facebook page.

The electoral commission has a database of voters which includes information that is not published in the government gazette when the electoral roll is released. The database matches names, addresses and ID numbers, with ballot boxes and polling stations. It is used to administer elections and includes information you would call very sensitive if you [...]

A good thing happened in parliament yesterday. But it’s my job to point out what should have happened differently, what should have been better. I’m not here to applaud. Politicians have enough servile apologists without needing me. A resolution was moved jointly by the prime minister and the leader of opposition declaring that both sides [...]

I’m publishing this piece by Annika Palome with reservations. Guest posts do not necessarily reflect my views but only of the guests. And I find myself in disagreement with some aspects of this particular post. But we’re living in strange times and stuck at home for days on end I too may have a warped [...]

The following is an analysis by auditor Godfrey Leone Ganado of the last available audited accounts of Steward Malta Limited that operates the concession running St Luke's, Karin Grech and Gozo General Hospital. These accounts refer to the year ending 31 December 2017. At 31 December 2017, the company was still operating under the name [...]

Stay home. Don’t make unnecessary trips. Don’t stretch the national health service by having meetings you can have from home. That applies to everyone, except Owen Bonnici apparently, who has been throwing himself at every photo opportunity imaginable like his life depended on it. Today he dragged the education ministry’s permanent secretary (not too terribly [...]

A major data leak uncovered by an online data monitor leaked the names, addresses and telephone numbers of 340,000 Maltese voters. The secretary of the company responsible for the data leak C-Planet IT Solutions is Joseph Zrinzo, a close relative of parliamentary secretary Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi. Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi’s law firm SZA Advocates is promoted [...]

A response has been filed in the Varna District Court in Bulgaria to a defamation suit filed against this website by Christo Georgiev, part-owner of the shuttered Satabank. The response asks the Bulgarian court to dismiss Mr Georgiev’s case because if his complaint had merit it should have been filed in Malta where the article [...]

Statement by Repubblika Repubblika expresses its sincere best wishes to Judge Mark Chetcuti that has been nominated to the post of chief justice and president of Malta’s court following an agreement between the government and the parliamentary opposition. Judge Mark Chetcuti heard Repubblika’s arguments on judicial independence. We argued that judges should not be appointed [...]

Because that’s the only way to call it. He was being interviewed by Times of Malta and he rubbished calls – led by the PN – for a cut in energy tariffs to ease the pressure on families and businesses hurt by the coronavirus slow down or shut down. Here’s the Q&A: There have been [...]

Robert Abela understands as well as anybody that when this pestilence runs itself out we are all going to be poorer than we were when it first hit us. Like all cataclysms more of us will be acutely aware of the weaknesses that many could ignore in times of plenty. More people will appreciate the [...]

Repubblika yesterday launched a series of Facebook Live programs hosted by Norman Vella. Yesterday's show discussed the hospitals privatisation scandal also in the light of recent revelations that Konrad Mizzi signed an amendment to Steward Health Care's contract that sees them paid €100 million if they're removed from the contract because of their own default. [...]

Far be it from me to distract Minister Fearne from his duties at this time. He can answer for his part in all of this in the future, and his part was anyway relatively minimal, in the circumstances, he was just another minister nodding when Joseph Muscat said jump. There are plenty of ministers who [...]

The worldwide coronavirus crisis did not moderate Steward Health Care’s tough bargaining as it threatened the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania last Friday with the “immediate” shut down of its Easton Hospital in the state’s Lehigh Valley if the government did not agree to pay them $40 million in emergency funds. The closure of Easton Hospital which [...]

I was sincerely hoping someone would deny yesterday’s MaltaToday story that the government would have to fork out a €100 million penalty if the Steward contract is terminated for any reason including Steward’s fault. It should, by any standard, be absurd to have this in a contract. It is more stupid than giving a pound [...]

You'd be forgiven if you forgot that it was the PN who first asked the auditor general to investigate alleged irregularities in the award of the prime site in St George's Bay to the dB group. When Simon Busuttil, then PN leader, asked for that report, the irregularities were still "alleged". Now they've been established [...]

Have you noticed? The government had no reaction to the national auditor’s report into the transfer of the ITS site in St George’s Bay to the dB group. That’s even though as the dB group pointed out in its facetious comment, the NAO criticised the government not the dB group. First a word to the [...]

When COVID-19 first surfaced in China, we were told not to worry unduly, as seasonal flu and pollution killed more people, so everybody went about their business as usual. People kept socialising, eating out, and attending football matches and other events without a care in the world. By the time that governments and people started [...]

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "If you’re tempted to consider (the independent press) a business past its time like riverside tanners or shipbuilders, consider that the courts do not need to look for advertising to continue to serve justice and preserve your rights. "Protecting democracy should not be a servant to market [...]

In an earlier piece I wrote on why I think Robert Abela shows he does not have what it takes to manage the present crisis. He’s showing signs of being just as inadequate for what comes later. Consider the statement he made after meeting the construction lobby yesterday. "Construction industry has to elevate the country [...]