A win for journalism, and a win for everyone’s basic rights

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2023-12-11T17:56:11+01:00Mon, 11th Dec '23, 17:56|

The Constitutional Court presided by Judge Toni Abela ruled today on a case I brought in September 2020 after I was denied reasonable access to assess living conditions in the prison and in detention centres. The court ruled that the government breached my fundamental right to free expression when they refused or ignored my requests [...]

Opposition takes stand against new law abolishing temporary asset freezes

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2023-12-11T10:55:14+01:00Mon, 11th Dec '23, 10:55|

Shadow minister Karol Aquilina released a statement by the PN signalling opposition to changes to the law that gives the state the power to freeze assets belonging to people charged with money laundering The PN statement said the government is rushing the changes through Parliament “for reasons that are obvious and known” in an apparent [...]

Not a victimless crime

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2023-12-08T07:45:15+01:00Fri, 8th Dec '23, 07:45|

This is a speech I delivered yesterday in the Brussels building of the European Parliament at the event launching the political manifesto of the CHANCE network of European anti-mafia civil society organisations. The event was sponsored by the Socialist and Democrats Group in the European Parliament and hosted by Socialist MEP and former Italian chief [...]

Subtle transformation

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2023-12-07T05:58:43+01:00Thu, 7th Dec '23, 05:58|

This is what a flight on the new airline replacing Air Malta looks like. If you're struggling to tell the difference, they changed the ties and the lanyards. The rest is the same. Ah yes, they wiped several hundreds of millions in accumulated losses over time. Look, I'm happy as the next guy that the [...]

Diminished ambitions

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2023-12-07T06:01:21+01:00Wed, 6th Dec '23, 13:16|

In March 2021, the Maltese government was desperate to convince the Financial Action Task Force to remove Malta from the list of "grey", untrustworthy, financial jurisdictions. One of the most important targets set to the Maltese government was to show they were serious about recovering assets from criminals. The logic is that criminals want to [...]

GUEST POST: A tale of KM to KM

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2023-12-05T12:42:56+01:00Tue, 5th Dec '23, 12:41|

The law provides for the protection of workers’ rights in a transfer of business situation.  Basically, what happens is that when there is a transfer of business, workers’ acquired rights are protected, such that there is an automatic switch over of employment (and the rights attendant thereon) from the “old” to the “new” employer. If [...]

Embezzling bananas

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2023-12-04T08:31:34+01:00Mon, 4th Dec '23, 08:31|

It is true that where people are involved the temptation of corruption is present and the possibility that it occurs is inescapable. It doesn’t get better if it’s more sophisticated. But it can be somehow worse if it is cheaply and brazenly done. A kickback on the back of some major public contract laundered through [...]

THE SUNDAY TIMES: Speaking for the victims

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2023-12-04T07:57:53+01:00Mon, 4th Dec '23, 07:57|

From my article in The Sunday Times yesterday: "Never has the gap between the thinking of the government and the thinking of civil society about what to do with corruption been wider than it is now. We think about victims and how to alleviate the hardship they suffer because of the greed of the few [...]

1. Parliament above government

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2023-12-04T07:53:43+01:00Mon, 4th Dec '23, 07:53|

This is a series of clips summarising our 20 proposals for a cleaner republic. They're co-produced with online news service Bonġu. Here's the first one. Given the time of year we're calling it an alternative Christmas calendar.

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