Yesterday’s first coronavirus death recorded in Malta highlighted weaknesses in the government’s response to the spread of the disease. There’s no doubt that Malta cannot alone escape the devastating impact of the pandemic and that people of vulnerable age are at serious risk of being overcome by the disease. There is also no doubt that [...]
Following yesterday's death of a 92-year-old resident of Dar Sant Anna, Gozo's public residential home on the Gozo General Hospital grounds, the government announced the second coronavirus-related death in Malta. The second fatal case is of a 79-year-old male patient who was undergoing treatment at the Karin Grech Hospital. He had been tested for coronavirus [...]
Malta is one of a handful of Council of Europe member states not to participate in the human rights organisation’s annual penal statistics that measure and compare prison conditions in 47 member states of the Council of Europe including Russia and Turkey. The other countries that did not participate are Belgium, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Georgia and the [...]
The following ten stories are real-life cases. The names and some of the details of the case have been changed to make sure the persons involved are not identifiable. One Lina is an old woman who lives alone. She is 85 years old and is still capable of taking care of herself. On a weekly [...]
Life in prison will be impacted even more by the coronavirus pandemic as prison wardens and staff have received orders to be prepared to sleep on prison grounds one week at a time. They have been asked to bring their own pillows from home or buy pillows supplied by the prison's commissary and bring their [...]
In case you missed it this was the program broadcast over Facebook by Repubblika yesterday. Hosted as usual by Norman Vella.
Here are answers to questions frequently asked by people considering whether to join the collective action lawsuit against C-Planet IT Solutions Limited being organised by Repubblika and The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation. If you were eligible to vote in 2013, your personal data has been stolen and then leaked to the outside world. Consider signing [...]
Read this article by Repubblika’s Robert Aquilina in today’s Times of Malta. The article sets out two tests for a successful reform of the manner the country uses to select future judges. The objective here is to make sure the judiciary is independent from the control of the other branches of government. Well, one branch [...]
A year ago today Lassan Cisse was killed in a drive by shooting on his way back home inside the Ħal Far Tent Village. His case still awaits justice. The below article was first published by The Sunday Times on 14 April 2019. You know your town has become violent when a drive-by shooting barely [...]
Photo: Sally Hayden Ministers Chris Fearne and Byron Camilleri went through great pains yesterday to insist there was no racism behind their decision to lock inside for two weeks a thousand residents of the Ħal Far migrants centre. I say ‘centre’. I could call it what Byron Camilleri called it: HTV, Ħal Far [...]
This was broadcast yesterday. The first few seconds are silent due to a small tech error but it all works after that. Norman Vella's interview with George Cremona, a doctor working at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan is gripping stuff.
Bad advice is worse than no advice at all. Contradictory advice is in and of itself bad advice. Every day, Charmaine Gauci is on TV backed by a very simple set of three instructions: Cover, Clean and Contain. Cover your mouth when coughing and sneezing. Clean your hands for longer and more often than you’ve [...]
The government is reported promising media owners some help to see them through the coronavirus crisis but reporting by the editorial arms of those media outlets suggests that the details are either too thin for now or else they have been kept from journalists for the time being. Who gets to be eligible? On what [...]
Civil society organisations Repubblika and The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation are together launching a legal initiative so that those persons whose personal data was revealed through the data leak from the servers of the company C-Planet Solutions Limited may obtain justice. This database contained personal information regarding anyone who had the right to vote in [...]
Lockdown came early for Labour Party deputy leader Chris Cardona who has not been seen in any political engagement since the resignation of Joseph Muscat and the appointment of a new cabinet by Robert Abela. Along with Konrad Mizzi – another senior player in Joseph Muscat’s cabinet – and of course Joseph Muscat himself, Chris [...]
The initiative of the Bishop of Gozo to raise funds for a ventilator in Gozo is of course commendable. This crisis requires a national effort and though the government must lead, we should all pitch in to the best of our ability. There is nothing wrong with charity and private initiative as long as they [...]
I don’t approve of hunting. And I don’t like guns. Call me a lily-livered pacifist but I don’t think I could survive squeezing a trigger whatever I’d be aiming at and I don’t think there’s much that drives me into worse irrational over-reaction than the sight of children using toy guns. I admit it’s irrational [...]
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 [...]
