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The images are by Darrin Zammit Lupi.              

You know you're not living in a democracy when politicians and their staffers feel perfectly entitled to call you at home to pester you to vote for them, but if you dare write to Parliament's Speaker you'll be told you cannot write to him and he will not reply to you. A couple [...]

It’s not people who follow timesofmalta.com or read The Times of Malta in print in the morning who are likely to be impressed by some Anthony Degiovanni accusing Matthew Caruana Galizia of “contributing to his mother’s killing”. So, when an unidentified “spokesman from the OPM condemns” Anthony Degiovanni’s remarks to comments made exclusively to the [...]

We are living in the age of the mediocre. Our scorn for mediocrity blinds us to its vast primitive power. We stand in the glare of our superior intelligence unable to see into the dim lights of the room, to dilate our eyes and see the potential danger of the masses. We cannot quite believe [...]

A friend told me it was wrong of me to call the Speaker and his lawyer piles of shit, not when I complain about hate speech. I tell other people that words are like stones, they should use them to build bridges not to throw them at someone else. And yet I am weak and [...]

Protest on Monday 29 November 2021 at 6 pm: Anġlu Farrugia and Rosianne Cutajar should no longer be in our Parliament Repubblika, Occupy Justice and manueldelia.com support Matthew Caruana Galizia’s demand for the resignation of Speaker Anġlu Farrugia and express their agreement with remarks made by former prime minister and former Speaker Lawrence Gonzi that “we [...]

This letter was sent directly to Anġlu Farrugia's email address [email protected] in defiance of what his lawyer Ian Refalo described as "proper Parliamentary procedure". You should send him one too. Dear Anġlu Farrugia, In absolute defiance of 'proper parliamentary procedure' and in the best interests of democracy and the rule of law, I'm writing to you [...]

I saw this yesterday when the Speaker got his lawyer Ian Refalo to write on his behalf because he couldn’t bring himself to write to Matthew Caruana Galizia. This letter should be immortalised as perhaps the final nail in the coffin of our Parliamentary democracy. The list of reasons for this is very long, the [...]

In a reaction to the Speaker’s poor excuse of a “reprimand” to Rosianne Cutajar, Matthew Caruana Galizia told Anġlu Farrugia he should resign immediately “in the best interests of our democracy, and due to your proven incapacity and unwillingness to defend parliament from corruption”. Daphne Caruana Galizia’s eldest son and director of the foundation set [...]

No one, except the incorrigible Konrad Mizzi, is claiming paternity for Konrad Mizzi’s commitment to Stewart Health Care that they would get €100 million if their contract over the 3 formerly public hospitals in Malta would somehow be stopped. There are a number of scenarios in which this could happen though whether any of them [...]

Hot off the press, a new regulation that gives the chief civil servant in the court building the power and the authority to decide whether a court judgement is kept on or taken off the online database. This is a new set of regulations published without any announcement or fanfare in the last 24 hours. [...]

I was very happy to participate today on the second day of this important conference on SLAPP suits hosted in London by the Justice for Journalists Foundation and the Foreign Policy Centre. If you want to watch this morning's session scroll to 10:30 on the time shown at the top right of the screen of [...]

I’m no expert on the dynamics of the internal politics of the European Parliament. I can add nothing to the “informed sources” quoted by other media groups rating Roberta Metsola’s chances at being elected president. Any ‘analysis’ would be derivative, the sort a local sports commenter would give discussing the soccer world cup on TV [...]

The arraignment and conviction of an erstwhile faceless Facebook commenter warning Repubblika’s Robert Aquilina to feel fear walking the streets of Valletta alone is a welcome development. The local police take these situations seriously and that’s a good thing. This case was not exceptional. With the additional good fortune that the perpetrator did not hide [...]

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "The Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry conclusions included detailed  recommendations for Malta to adopt specific anti-mafia laws. The recommendations, studiously ignored by the government, were drawn up because the inquiry found that the absence of such laws is part of the state’s failure and, consequently, the state’s responsibility [...]

More details have emerged of the Game Over II anti-mafia investigation in Italy that includes Maltese companies and online gambling sites licensed in Malta. The Maltese companies identified by Palermo’s prosecution service as “Leaderbet Limited” and “HR Management Limited”. The latter company is held by Angelo Repoli from Messina. The two companies operated illegal betting [...]

In 2013, Joseph Muscat was elected with an impressive majority following a sleek and very expensive campaign with the solemn pledge to rule by meritocracy, reduce utility tariffs and care for and protect the environment. Thousands believed him and saw in him a new saviour, the one who could deliver the Labour Party from decades [...]