Veteran Italian journalist Sandro Ruotolo was elected last night to the Italian Senate replacing the former Senator for the Naples constituency Franco Ortolani who had died in office. Sandro Ruotolo contested the election on his own ticket “Napoli con Ruotolo” but was backed by the centre-left parties Partito Democratico and the Movimento Democrazia e Autonomia. [...]
Christo Georgiev, Bulgarian owner of the Maltese Satabank, has filed a SLAPP suit in a court in Bulgaria for monetary compensation for damages he alleges he suffered as a result of a blog post published on this website. The blog post published in October 2018 was headlined “Satabank: And how I let them bully me [...]
Some details from the controversial Malta carnival float featuring an effigy of the archbishop. The makers appear to have taken Charles Scicluna's hint about what should have been expected on a carnival float this year. Photos taken today.
Glenn Bedingfield took the stand today at the inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Even after two years of universal condemnation, of films, books, articles and documentaries carrying an objective interpretation of what has happened in Malta over the years leading to Daphne Caruana Galizia’s killing and of what happened since, of visiting [...]
Filed by Spartacus. In 1977, Dr Eddie Fenech Adami was elected as leader of the Nationalist Party. Some time later, at a rally held at the Plaza cinema in Sliema, Dr Fenech Adami delivered his first public speech. In this speech he expressed the danger that was looming then: the merging of the GWU with [...]
I filed a judicial protest in court today against minister Byron Camilleri and three of his officials: the prisons director, the director for detention centres and the principal immigration officer. I claimed that their rejection of my request to visit detention centres and the prison is an abuse of human rights. Of course, we’re not [...]
Neville Gafà’s testimony this week at the inquiry into the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia contradicts statements made in 2018 by then Foreign Minister Carmelo Abela. One of them is lying. We need the government to tell us who. This week Neville Gafà said he held a diplomatic passport. He said he represented Malta in [...]
The government still needs to come clean about Neville Gafà Yesterday’s testimony at the inquiry into the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia opens up fresh questions which the government must answer. For the first time ever Neville Gafà gave what he claimed was a sincere account of his function in government, at least over the [...]
The president of the Venice Commission Gianni Buquicchio told this website that “no formal advice was yet sought or provided” with regards to the changes to the law currently being debated in Parliament on the manner of appointing the police chief. Gianni Buquicchio told this website that Byron Camilleri’s Ministry only sought “informal consultations”. This [...]
Judge Joseph Said Pullicino’s questioning of witnesses in the public inquiry into the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia is incisive. There are few pleasures in this experience. But watching people like Nigel Vella and Matthew Carbone squirm under the pressure of his deceptively gentle questions is a considerable compensation for the dread and [...]
It is truly worrying to see Robert Abela’s government adopt the methods of its predecessor. One such habit was Owen Bonnici’s classic pivot of saying that the reforms he proposed were “approved by the Venice Commission”. That’s when they had not at all been approved by the Venice Commission. Byron Camilleri in parliament yesterday claimed [...]
A few days ago, I titled a post about corruption within the police force as Serpico. I sort of left that word hanging there. I admit it was a bit of an indulgence. Someone in the comments board thought it was a corruption on the Maltese for snake or snakes. Some background. Francesco Vincent Serpico [...]
There’s no other way of calling it. Robert Abela’s spokesman Matthew Carbone yesterday was in utter contempt of the inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. He defied the inquiry board repeatedly. He answered their questions with statements that would have been proper responses to entirely different questions. He wheeled in Charlon Gouder to [...]
Photo: Ian Pace. (The Times of Malta 06.11.2013: Sneaking a peak behind the prison walls) I have filed a request with the home affairs minister to visit the prisons and other detention facilities on the island. I didn’t do it once. I wrote to Minister Michael Farrugia (who was the responsible minister at [...]
https://youtu.be/CZo-8yUu1c8
https://youtu.be/rjJ08fDAC6I
https://youtu.be/ZkwJx1hl-5A
https://youtu.be/DhZ9ridNf1E
https://youtu.be/UZ77LCGHW4g
This set is by Robert Agius.