Joseph Muscat is facing the inquiry he himself set up to look into the state’s role in the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia. But the man still walks around fully expecting to be the centre of gravity. He sought from the outset to turn the tables on the inquiry, putting the trial on trial as [...]
Whoever thought that would be a good idea (from his point of view) is either him or someone who never had a conversation with him. Or they never read the report of my interview with him which would have warned them the man would provide the worst possible recommendation for himself. Prison directors are not [...]
Today’s court decision denying Pia Zammit’s libel suit against it-Torċa appears to be predicated on the idea that taking an acting role in ‘Allo! ‘Allo! is controversial for being flippant about the holocaust or Nazism. This is a blindingly misguided reading of the play. No one should be able to emerge from watching ‘Allo! ‘Allo! [...]
It must have been a very short interview that Times of Malta had with Minister Byron Camilleri. They asked him to react to a court decision by Magistrate Victor Asciak who ordered the immediate release of four migrants who had been languishing in unlawful detention for 166 days. A similar decision was taken [...]
Brussels sources told this website that Robert Abela’s government is raising objections to the adoption of a permanent fund for journalists conducting investigations across member states' borders. The fund is being set up in the wake of the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta. The initiative is part of an EU-wide effort to help [...]
A court decision yesterday should rightly lead to Ian Borg’s resignation. He won’t resign and what’s more he’s arrogant enough to think, even to himself, that he doesn’t have to. But the court’s decision yesterday in a case in which he was a witness, certifies him as a character entirely unsuitable for public life. Read [...]
There’s so much that is wrong with Silvio Debono’s attitude at the inquiry yesterday. To begin with, there’s the notion of suing the dead, which the most powerful people in the land, with access to the greatest financial resources, to consultants of every hue, and to expense on their own image and public relations that [...]
Politicians who claim credit for the achievements of science cause as much harm to the objective credibility of science, as those who altogether deny its veracity. To be fair I don’t think many people take Robert Abela’s bluster seriously. He hasn’t quite charmed supporters of the Labour Party yet. They take his bullishness with a [...]
The story of police wiretaps of a mafioso accountant laundering billions for the ‘Ndrangheta, one of the biggest and most dangerous crime syndicates in the world, should hopefully chill some people here into a realisation of what we’re dealing with. Around the time that Matthew Caruana Galizia first hit this sceptical, uncomprehending island with the [...]
I’ve written about Simon Mercieca on this blog a few times and I worry that I end up promoting the hallucinations of a lunatic simply by flattering them with a response. I could go on about the lies he is perpetrating. He would not call them lies. He would call them alternative facts, relegating reality [...]
I couldn’t miss the sight of Konrad Mizzi repeating the line ‘I will not reply’ several hundred times as he’s asked questions that have been chasing him for 7 years. Let him know then that this is the rest of his life – behind bars or outside them, in parliament’s dunces’ corner or wherever he [...]
The fugitives are managing the risks to themselves arising out of the Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry in the same way they managed the risks to themselves arising out of the work of Daphne Caruana Galizia. They are treating it with contempt, seeking to discredit it, staying away from it, associating it with the ineligible-to-the-truth Nationalists, [...]
Joe Cuschieri has resigned the headship of the Malta Financial Services Authority. That's after he "suspended himself", but before former Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi reported to the MFSA board on his findings in an internal inquiry. When they hired Joseph Azzopardi they must have expected him to be accommodating. After all, he hadn't found anything [...]
Repubblika reacted today to reports that Joseph Muscat and Yorgen Fenech had a paid-for holiday in Yorgen Fenech's Evian hotel. The NGO said it was concerned and saddened by drip-fed developments revealing unacceptable friendships between politicians and major businessmen who use gifts, privileges and tips to get closer to decision-makers. "It is becoming increasingly clear [...]
Manuel Delia · Confidence Crisis Gordon Debono has also been charged with money laundering in connection with the fuel smuggling scandal we’ve known about for some four years. I became vaguely aware of this when Daphne Caruana Galizia wrote about the mother-in-law of Gordon Debono’s business partner Darren Debono, calling her to bully her because [...]
Matthew Carbone, chief spokesman of the government, manager of Robert Abela’s relationship with the press, propagandist in command, head communications honcho and all the rest of it, has just had his part-time contract renewed. Yep, because you see, the chief government spokesman needs and has a part-time job and as you might imagine his second [...]
On 28 June I wrote about Ishmael Psaila, a Super One newspaper ‘reviewer’ and Labour Party activist who is also Keith Schembri’s personal attorney. On the day I wrote about him because after removing Aaron Mifsud Bonnici from the Enemalta board in the wake of the Montenegro windfarm scandal, the government replaced him with Ishmael [...]
Malta, rightly, paid tribute to Oliver Friggieri today. He was never my teacher but for some months he used to be on the radio back in the time when talk-shows on radio existed and were something to look forward to. Oliver Friggieri was not good with technology. My children will find it difficult to believe [...]
I was saddened to see the Institute of Journalists explicitly distance itself from The Shift News. You may call me a chicken but I’m not here to pass judgement on whether the reaction was proportionate or not. I’m not here to pass judgement on anything or anyone because if this is about journalists aiming their [...]
Updated at 18:03 Arthur Azzopardi has been released from arrest after being interrogated in connection with laundering money for an oil smuggling racket between Libyan militia and the Italian mafia. He was questioned after charges were filed last night against Darren Debono, former Malta football national, who is also undergoing a trial in Italy for providing [...]